Kenya Airways has announced its commencement of flights to New Delhi, the Indian Capital city, starting May 15th 2012. The much anticipated service marks Kenya Airways' 57th global destination and 2nd in India subcontinent.The launch of this new route highlights KQ's efforts to provide seamless travel and accessibility to travelers from Africa to India subcontinent and vice versa.
Kenya Airways flights to New Delhi will be four times a week on a Boeing 767-300.
The new route highlights Kenya Airways ambitious growth plans to expand its network as part of its 10 year growth strategy. "New Delhi is the second city after Mumbai that we will be flying to India, we intend to open four more destinations in the sub continent as part of our 10 year expansion strategy," said Dr. Titus Naikuni, Kenya Airways Chief Executive Officer.
Dr. Naikuni noted that the destination has great business prospects as New Delhi is one of the largest cities in India, and the most preferred city in terms of information technology, investments, healthcare and government relations.
India's economic growth has averaged around 7% each year since 1997, making it one of the world's largest emerging markets. According to industry forecasts, traffic flows between sub-Saharan Africa and India are expected to grow at a rate of 7.1% per annum over the next decade.
Kenya Airways remains the fastest growing airline in the continent and is pursuing a network expansion strategy that targets to link all African countries with the world, making it the airline of choice for travelers in the continent.
lndia has been aggressively promoting trade with Africa as it seeks to gain access to the continent's emerging markets. The new route to Delhi seeks to expand and promote the bilateral and commercial relations between India and the African region.
India is Kenya's sixth largest trading partner, with a vast business presence in the country. Recently, Kenya-India relations have improved buoyed by increasing bilateral trade that hit US $4.8 billion in 2010/2011.
Recently the airline announced a right issue offer to be launched on March 30th. The company hopes to raise Kshs20.7 billion from its shareholders.
Proceeds from the rights issue are projected to fund implementation of an ambitious 10-year expansion plan dubbed Project Mawingu; which would see the airline increase it number of destinations from the current 56 to 115 destinations by the year 2021.
