Kenya Airways has announced its 2016 winter schedule that will see changes to the route network as well as frequencies to suit customer needs in various KQ destinations during the season.
The airline will increase its flight frequency to the recently launched Cape Town route, that goes via Livingston, from the current three to four per week and eventually to six times per week around Christmas to meet demand.
In line with its Winning in Africa strategy, the airline will also increase its frequencies in East Africa with a new midday flight to Kigali and Bujumbura making it 25 flights per week.
In addition, Kenya Airways will add night flights to Comoros and Madagascar in a bid to offer reliable connectivity to these Indian Ocean destinations.
This brings the frequencies to seven and 10 times during peak for Comoros and 14 flights per week for Madagascar. Entebbe and Dar es Salaam both remain to be served with five daily flights each, providing the best travel options in the region.
As part of its network restructuring flights to Abuja, in Nigeria, and Gaborone, Botswana, will be suspended as offline destinations effective November 15.
Gaborone will continue to be served multiple times a day together with partners via Johannesburg. Kenya Airways flies three times a day to the South Africa city.
The new schedule comes at the back of a newly launched intra-Africa campaign targeted at leisure travellers on the continent to enjoy various destinations served by Kenya Airways. Kenya Airways serves more than 40 cities in Africa and continues to invest in the region.
Africa accounts for 60 percent of the airline’s turnover, for the year ending March 2016, and the airline is looking to increase this in the current financial year.
“As we go into the winter season we have made changes to our flight schedule with the aim of strengthening our network in Africa and more importantly optimising our services to selected destinations in response to passenger demands," said Kenya Airways Managing Director and Chief Executive Mbuvi Ngunze.
He added, "We are constantly relooking at our schedule to ensure we offer our guest reliable connectivity through our hub, Nairobi. I am happy to affirm that the improved connectivity over the summer season has seen intra-Africa traffic increase by 14%.”
On the intercontinental network, Mumbai and Dubai will both go to full double daily flights, increasing the frequency to these destinations to 14 per week. The network in Europe and Asia will remain unchanged, with daily flights to most destinations. All destinations in Europe and Far East are served by the B787 Dreamliner.
The winter schedule comes into effect from October 30, 2016.