KENYA AIRWAYS TO START DIRECT FLIGHTS TO NEW DELHI

May 16, 2012 New Delhi:…. Kenya Airways has announced its commencement of flights to the Indian Capital city, New Delhi starting May 16^th 2012. The much anticipated service marks Kenya Airways’ 57^th global destination and 2^nd in India.
The launch of this new route highlights KQ’s efforts to provide seamless travel and accessibility to travelers from Africa to Indian subcontinent and vice versa.
Kenya Airways will fly to New Delhi four times a week on a Boeing 767-300 as per the schedule below:

Flight No	From	Day of week	Orig	Dest	A/C	Dep	Arr
KQ  220	15 May 2012	Tue, Thur, Sat, Sun	NBO	DEL	763	13:50	23:20
KQ  221	16 May 2012	Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun	DEL	NBO	763	00:50	05:30

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 Group Managing Director & 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 30^th. 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.
ENDS……/
About Kenya Airways
Kenya Airways, a member of the SkyTeam Alliance, is the leading African airline flying to over 56 destinations worldwide, 45 of which are in Africa and carries over three million passengers annually. Kenya Airways is also a major employer with a workforce of over 4,200 employees. It continues to modernize its 34 aircraft fleet being one of the most modern in Africa. The on-board service is renowned and the lie-flat business class seat on the wide-body aircraft is consistently voted among the world’s top 10. Most recently it has scooped top awards at the Africa Investor (Ai) Tourism Investor Awards and was declared the Business Airline of the Year in Africa. Kenya Airways takes pride for being in the fore front of connecting Africa to the world and the World to Africa through its hub Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.