Kenya Airways has revealed its operating results for the third quarter of 2012, showing growth in a number of regions although significant impacts of European financial woes have put pressure on the airline.
The total number of passengers carried by the airline in Q3 grew by 3.6 percent as compared to the equivalent period of last year, reaching 991,149. Of this number, the Middle East, Far East and India regions contributed 151,100 of the passenger uplift figure, marking a 15.2 percent growth as compared to Q3 2011.
Passengers uplifted in Africa – excluding Kenya – also expanded, totalling 516,894, displaying a 2.9 percent increase on 2011 figures. The airline noted that this element of the positive results is attributable to a 10.1 percent capacity growth for the region.
Within Kenya, the number of passengers also grew – reaching 228,119 passengers uplifted -, an increase of 10.9 per cent as compared to the corresponding period last year.
The main disappointment in terms of passenger uplift came from the European side of operations, with the total number of individuals uplifted falling to 95,036 from last year’s Q3 figure of 117,527 passengers.
“Europe recorded the highest reduction due to the economic challenges facing the Euro-Zone economies that necessitated cutbacks in capacity offered,” the company said explaining the poor European results.
There were also a number of capacity changes across all regions, amounting to an overall capacity increase of 1.1 percent – the company contributing 3.6 billion seat kilometres to the market in Q3.
The airline attributed the capacity growth to new routes launched to Eldoret, Kilimanjaro and New Delhi.
This was confirmed by capacity growth in the Middle East and Far East region of 19.4 percent, while capacity in the East Africa region grew by 22.7 percent on last year’s figures.
Capacity for the Southern Africa region expanded by 6.8 per cent, followed up by 5.6 percent growth in the West Africa region.
As alluded to by the passenger uptake reduction, Europe saw a significant capacity reduction of 26.6 percent compared to Q3 of 2011, reflecting the company’s “capacity rationalization occasioned by the Euro zone crisis and the suspension of the Rome flights.”
