Kenya Airways hereby releases its operating results for the second quarter ended 30^th September 2012. The company put into the market capacity totalling 3,817m seat kilometres which was 4.9% above last year’s level.  There were new destinations launched: Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) – Oct 2011, Delhi (India) – May 2012 and Kilimanjaro (Tanzania) – July 2012.

The capacity into Middle East and Far East regions grew by 34.5%. Capacity offered into Europe shrunk by 13.8% compared to the same quarter of the prior year due to capacity rationalization occasioned by the Euro zone crisis and the suspension of the Rome flights. The Northern Africa region grew by 4.2% in capacity owing to increased frequencies. Capacity availed into the East African region grew by 11.4% compared to last year. This was mostly due to increased deployment of larger equipment.

Capacity in the Southern Africa region grew by 3.0%, and into West African region it grew by 9.1%.

On the Kenya domestic front, capacity reduced by 9.6% compared to similar period prior year.  This was as a result of aircraft down grade to Mombasa from the larger B737 aircraft to the smaller Embraer E190.  Uptake of total production at 2,784m revenue passenger kilometres was 1.7% below similar period last year.  Europe recorded the highest reduction due to the economic challenges facing the Euro-Zone economies and the closure of the Rome route.

The total passenger tally, which closed at 1,004,425, was at par with similar period last year resulting to a reduced cabin factor of 72.9% level.  Passenger uplift to Europe at 134,214 was a reduction on last year’s level of 158,247 following the capacity reduction.  This resulted to 82.7% seat occupancy level that was at close to prior year’s level of 83.3%.

In the Middle East, Far East and India regions, uplifted passenger traffic at 155,940 showed a marked improvement of 16.5% compared to same period prior year. The realised cabin factor of 72.9% was below prior year’s level of 88.3%.  Within Africa but excluding Kenya, passengers uplifted totalled 512,159 indicating a decline of 0.5% on the back of 5.0% capacity growth.

The resultant passenger cabin factor of 65.9% was 2.0 percentage points lower than similar period last year. Passengers uplifted within Kenya at 202,112 reduced by 0.4%. The resulting cabin factor of 79.9% was above 74.0% achieved last year.

Cargo capacity grew by 1.6% while tonnage remained at the same level compared to prior year.  Exports from Kenya dropped on account of unfavourable weather patterns evidenced in the quarter and market capacity.  Volumes from Europe shrunk reflecting the volatile economic conditions.