The company put into the market place a total capacity of 3,643m seat kilometres which represents a 4.6% year on year decline. During this quarter the airline successfully launched flights into Abu Dhabi, the second destination in the United Arab Emirates (UAE); and Blantyre, the second point in Malawi. These two are in addition to Livingstone via Harare operations introduced in the first quarter.
Capacity offered into Europe shrunk by 7.8% compared to the same quarter prior year arising from the withdrawal of all day flights to London occasioned by reduced traffic demand due to the Euro zone crisis. The introduction of daily operations to Guangzhou via Bangkok coupled with the commencement of services to Abu Dhabi spurred the growth of Middle East and Far East regions combined by only 1.7% compared to same period last year. This was the result of capacity rationalization in the Middle East region that saw the replacement of the larger B777s operations to Mumbai with the B767s and reduced frequencies to Delhi and Jeddah.
In the region of North Africa, the addition of a third daily frequency to Juba was diluted by cancellation of operations to Cairo prompted by the ongoing political turmoil in Egypt resulting in 27.7% capacity reduction in the region compared to prior year. The capacity offered in East Africa region grew by 7.0% from the additional early morning departures to Entebbe as well as increased Dar-es-salaam frequencies including daily night stops.
Extra night time operations into Lusaka and Lilongwe, in addition to the introduction of Livingstone via Harare route saw Southern Africa capacity go up by 8.0% compared to prior year. Dwindling demand in the West and Central African regions occasioned by changing market dynamics as well as civil unrest in some markets resulted in the suspension of Bangui, Ouagadougou, N’Djamena and Libreville destinations, with a consequent capacity reduction of 18.1% on same period in the prior year.
On the Domestic front, capacity grew by 21.5% compared to same quarter last year due to the re-launch of Eldoret with double dailies; a further two daily flights into Kisumu including a night stop, together with additional E190 operations to Mombasa.
Passenger traffic measured in revenue passenger kilometres at 2,649m reduced by 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year in line with capacity cutbacks alluded to above. The total passenger carrying at 1,012,176 was at par with last year achieving a cabin factor of 72.7% equal to prior year performance.
Passenger uplift to Europe was 129,006 with a decline of 3.9% compared to last year, on the back of 7.8% capacity reduction. The achieved seat occupancy level of 85.5% is higher than that of prior year at 82.7%.
In the Middle East and Far East regions, uplifted passenger traffic at 146,091 showed a 6.3% decline on prior year. However, the achieved cabin factor of 73.8% was 0.9% percentage points better than last year.
Within Africa but excluding Kenya, 500,117 passengers were uplifted, showing a 2.4% decline riding on an 8.0% capacity reduction compared to same period prior year. The achieved passenger cabin factor of 63.3% was 2.7 points lower than that of prior year.
Passengers uplifted within Kenya at 232,962 grew by 17.2% with a reduced cabin factor of 73.9% that was some 6.0 percentage points lower than prior year.
Belly cargo capacity measured in Available Tonne Kilometres (ATKs) reduced by 3.0% leading to a reduction in uplifted volumes by 7.5% compared to same period last year. The introduction of the second regional freighter in July improved the hub de-feed capacity and should continue to drive a consistent and reliable delivery of service in this area.
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