Kenya Airways to receive its first Boeing 777-300ER in October

by BA Staff

Kenya Airways is set to receive a Boeing 777-300ER this October to commence revenue service in November. The aircraft, which seats 400 passenger in a 2 class configuration (28J / 372Y), will be the largest aircraft in the airline's fleet to date.

Dr. Titus Naikuni, Kenya Airways Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, had this to say about the aircraft: 

This will be the largest aircraft in our fleet. Our current B777-200ER aircraft has a seating capacity of 322 passengers while this one has 400 seats. It  will give our business a major lift due to its enhanced product quality, excellent range and impressive cargo capacity ( more than 7,000 cubic feet of cargo volume; over 20 metric tons). The Boeing 777-300ER aircraft is a perfect fit for our network expansion plans as it will enable us serve our existing markets much more effectively and facilitate the opening of new long-haul routes in the near future.

Image Credit: Kenya Airways

The Premier World seats include full flat-bed seats with leather foot-rests, laptop stowage, and armrests. They also have a high quality entertainment system to go with 15.4 inch screens, a power socket, and a USB port. The Economy class seats contain articulating seat bottoms for better legroom, four-way adjustable headrests, and 10.6 inch monitors to go with a USB port, power sockets, and an in-flight handset.

This acquisition is part of Kenya Airways 10-year strategic plan dubbed ‘Project Mawingu’ in which the airline targets to increase its fleet size from the current 44 to 107 aircrafts by 2021 and destinations from the current 62  to 115. The new Boeing 777-300ER will commence direct flights from Nairobi to Guangzhou from November this year.

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Analysis: Air India to begin several new routes - including San Francisco and Madrid?

by Vinay Bhaskara

Earlier this month, erstwhile Indian national carrier Air India placed a tender asking for fuel supply contracts at 9 different stations as seen below. The tender includes Sydney, where Air India is planning to launch 4 weekly nonstop and 3 weekly one-stop flights (in a triangle routing with Melbourne) on-board the carrier's new Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Australian services are scheduled to commence August 29th as of press time.

As the document states, just because the destinations are mentioned in this fuel tender, it does not necessarily mean that they will in fact be operated. The airline business is transitory, and airline plans are rapidly changing. That being said, if we take this document at face value, it represents a major international expansion, both for Air India's under-utilized fleet of Boeing 777-200LRs (5 are currently being shopped) and Boeing 777-300ERs, as well as for the 27 787 Dreamliners on order.


Sydney is already a known quantity, but Jakarta is an interesting destination. Indonesia and India recently revised their bilateral air service agreement (ASA) in 2011 to allow carriers from either side to operate up to 28 flights per week with aircraft of size up to a Boeing 747-400. Indonesian carriers are allowed to serve Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai, while Indian carriers are allowed to serve Jakarta, Medan, Bali, and Surabaya. Garuda Indonesia was reportedly planing on serving Jakarta - Mumbai/Delhi with 737-800 aircraft but those plans never materialized. The largest Indian population in Indonesia is actually on the island of Sumantra, and India-Medan demand is under-served. Even so, Air India would have the first mover's advantage on connecting these two burgeoning regional powers.

The addition of Nairobi on this list raises an interesting question - the biggest demand center from Nairobi is with India's commercial hub in Mumbai thanks to historical ties of Indian expats to Africa and the type of business traffic on the route. However, Air India looks committed to building a proper connecting hub in Delhi, where there is some demand to Nairobi, but low yields and existing competition in the form of SkyTeam member Kenya Airways. It will be interesting to see where Air India chooses to route its Nairobi services from. Perhaps a nonstop Nairobi-Mumbai service that continues on to Delhi could work; as the 787 is the right aircraft for the job but all of the 787s are currently based in Delhi.

The European centers vary in feasibility - Milan and Rome both have strong O&D demand - and Milan in particular has a large North Indian community with more than 76,000 annual passengers (in each direction) demand to Delhi. Rome is a more tourist-oriented destination but it too has a strong VFR (visiting family relatives) traffic component. Delhi-Milan was previously tried by Jet Airways with an A330-200, but Air India is stronger in Delhi than Jet Airways is, and the 787 has a better cost profile for the route than Jet Airways A330s.

Zurich is a premium destination with growing Indian tourist demand to Switzerland. But there isn't the volume required to sustain nonstop services for Air India - the premium segment of the market is already dominated by Swiss. However, the size of the fuel contract indicates that Air India will be likely serving Zurich as a tag-on to one of the other European destinations - likely Rome or Milan.

Moscow has strong demand thanks to growing business ties but will face strong competition from Aeroflot's existing flights to Sheremetyevo. Madrid is an odd one. There are no significant business or leisure ties between Indian and Span, and with Spain in the midst of debilitating recession, demand is not set to grow any time soon.

San Francisco is another interesting case. Air India is the only Indian carrier with the aircraft required to launch San Francisco nonstop from Delhi (a flight of 7706 miles) - the Boeing 777-200LR and the Boeing 777-300ER (Jet Airways' configuration of the 777-300ER is too heavy to do so)  - however, the size of the fuel tender involved implies that San Francisco will be served as a one-stop destination; likely via Milan given the inflated size of the tender in Milan. Delhi-San Francisco is a large market, with 159,520 annual O&D passengers, but yields are extremely low. Meanwhile, Bangalore-San Francisco is a much higher yielding market with still 70,802 passengers of annual demand in 2011 alone (has likely crossed the 85,000 mark given the boom in Silicon Valley). Bangalore-San Francisco is doable on Air India's 777-200LRs.

Regardless, the expansion from Air India is interesting to behold. These routes will likely not return Air India to profitability given the massive debt. But on an operational basis; a few of them could be sustainable and break even.

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Etihad Airways signs code share agreement with Kenya Airways; strengthened ties with SkyTeam?

by Vinay Bhaskara

Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airways has inked a code share with Nairobi based Kenya Airways, expanding access to second and third tier African destinations for its consumers. Etihad Airways will place its code on flights by Kenya Airways to 27 destinations across Kenya Airways' African network. Meanwhile, Kenya Airways will place its code onto 32 onward destinations from Etihad's global hub. The Kenya Airways code will also be placed onto Etihad's daily Abu Dhabi-Nairobi service with 136 seat (16J/120Y) Airbus A320 aircraft, while Kenya Airways will launch a thrice-weekly service Nairobi-Abu Dhabi from mid 2013 onwards.

James Hogan, Etihad Airways President and Chief Executive Officer, said: “The partnership agreement with Kenya Airways is in line with our strategy of forming alliances with airlines around the world to enhance our network and marketing reach. This agreement will also allow both airlines to benefit from cost savings achieved through synergies and economies of scale.

Dr. Titus Naikuni, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Kenya Airways, said: “The new codeshare partnership with Etihad Airways is a significant strengthening of the global network of both airlines, which provides more choice to all our passengers. As part of the agreement we are looking for greater collaboration and coordination on cargo operations, training and procurement opportunities which will make us more cost efficient and customer responsive.”

Code share agreements in and of themselves aren't huge news, but this agreement is notable because it marks increased ties for Etihad with the SkyTeam alliance. After fellow Gulf rival Qatar Airways broke tradition and joined the oneworld alliance, it has become increasingly speculated that Etihad will follow suit and join SkyTeam (Star Alliance is seen as too crowded for another middle-eastern carrier with Turkish Airlines already in the fold).

Etihad now has code share partnerships with nine SkyTeam carriers, including its founder member, Air France. While Etihad touts the benefits of its so-called "equity alliances" composed of its investments and reciprocal codeshares in European LCC airberlin, African regional carrier Air Seychelles, Australian carrier Virgin Australia, and Irish national carrier Aer Lingus, it would undoubtedly benefit from the increased feed provided by membership in a global alliance. While this particular agreement does not mean that a deal is imminent, it does add incrementally to the likelihood of Etihad joining SkyTeam.

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