Kenya Airways announced today that it was boosting its domestic and short haul regional services with an additional aircraft, a Boeing 737-300.
The equipment registered as 5Y-KYM has been leased from KLM. It will initially be used primarily to boost the services on the Nairobi-Mombasa route. Speaking while taking delivery of the aircraft Kenya Airways Chief Operating Officer, Bram Steller explained that as of now the aircraft spotted a blue fuselage with ‘Kenya Airways’ brand presented in white typeface over the next two months. The plane would be fully rebranded to Kenya Airways colours after the initial two months of service. “Due to high demand on these routes, our passengers will use the new aircraft with the temporary blue outside body colours. I wish to reassure them that within the next two months the aircraft will spot the official KQ branding and colours,” he explained noting that the painting process and full conversion ordinarily took about few months to complete. He noted that adding the plane was in line with Kenya Airways strategy to increase the level of efficiency on the domestic and regional services including offering passengers more choice of flying times and frequency. This exciting development comes in the wake of Kenya Airways ordering for two Embraer 190 aircraft which are expected to be delivered early next year. It also follows closely on the recent expansion of the Embraer fleet to five after the airline took delivery of two additional aircraft last month boosting its fleet to a total 28 aircraft. Steller noted that the airline was keenly pursuing a fleet expansion plan that will support its route network growth especially in the African region, with new destinations as such as Luanda in Angola next week. “With Nairobi fast growing as the East and Central African aviation hub, we expect a profound growth in demand for Kenya Airways as the hub carrier to open up more new cities and increase frequencies on the existing ones with more flights,” he pointed out.
