Kenya Airways to launch Angola service

August 17 will see the launch by Kenya Airways of a Nairobi-Luanda flight, the 50th destination in its network. “We expect to commence operations with two flights a week on Tuesdays and Fridays, which will operate as a code share with TAAG Angolan Airlines between Luanda and Nairobi, maximising connections from Angola to the rest of the world and vice versa,” Dr Titus Naikuni, group managing director and CEO said last week. Area manager southern Africa, Rosemary Adogo, told FTW that the new service would cut transit time from South Africa by 50%. A 737-800 or 737-700 will be deployed on the route. “If demand warrants, we will slot in appropriate capacity,” she said. The bilateral agreement follows eight years of negotiation, and the development is in line with the airline’s Africa growth strategy. A recent addition to the route network was Juba in Sudan. “We started a month ago with three flights a week and now offer a daily service based on demand,” she said. A number of feasibility studies are currently under way with several new destinations lined up for the future. These include Nampula in Mozambique, Jeddah, Rome and Ouagadougou. “Safety is one of the fundamentals for the launch of any service,” says Adogo. “If the airport is not safe, regardless of market potential, we will not launch the service,” Kenya Airways is the first African airline to have been awarded the Iata Operational Safety Audit programme twice. This internationally recognised and accepted evaluation system is designed to assess an airline’s operational management and control systems. It was one of the key conditions set by SkyTeam alliance partners when Kenya Airways was accepted as a full member in June this year. A development, says Adogo, that extends the airline’s global reach significantly. And while most airlines are largely passenger driven, at Kenya Airways cargo has become a strong revenue stream, says Adogo. “Kenya has a big agricultural base – with tea, coffee and flowers a large component of our cargo operations. This makes it possible for us sell an express as well as a general cargo product, with a courier service catering for magazines and newspapers.” According to Kenya Airways Cargo’s Rafiq Fredericks, capacity between Johannesburg and Nairobi is more than adequate in view of competition on the route. And excess capacity translates into softer rates. “We need to be flexible and have therefore introduced promotional rates to Nairobi as well as Lagos,” Fredericks told FTW. “We’re offering 0.55$/ kg for +1000kg to Nairobi and 1.90$/kg for +1000kg to Lagos, with widebody aircraft (767/777) flying there daily. We also provide widebody capacity to Kinshasa, Brazzaville, Lilongwe and Harare.” For the year ahead, Adogo says the airline will continue its strategic expansion plan which aims at providing the widest coverage of African destinations, linking them to key destinations in Europe, Asia and China.