Kenya Airways grows fleet

Kenya Airways is growing its capacity with the arrival of a new Embraer E190 jet to KQ’s fleet. Registered as 5Y-KYR, the E190 touched down at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport yesterday (12 September) from Sao Jose dos Campos, Embraer Headquarters in Brazil. As the KYR made its way to Nairobi another Kenya Airways E190 made its maiden test flight in Brazil and is expected to be delivered to Nairobi by next month.

KYR is expected into service within the next two weeks and will be deployed to operate to the south, central and north Africa regions.

The new 96-seater aircraft will join the growing family of Embraer jets that Kenya Airways uses for its regional operations in Africa. This is in line with the plans to build capacity that is more efficient for its Africa market.

“With our route network expansion firmly on course, the addition of a new aircraft into the fleet is quite timely,” says group MD and CEO Dr Titus Naikuni.

He adds that the increase in capacity had been necessitated by growing regional passenger and cargo demand and a rapidly expanding route network.

Recently Embraer and Kenya Airways finalised the contract for the acquisition of ten Embraer 190 jets. The deal also includes purchase rights for 16 aircraft, which could be either the Embraer 190 or other models of the E-Jet family.

The airline now has five E170s and three E190s as part of its aggressive network and fleet expansion program to cater for the growing travel market. This fleet modernisation will boost the airline’s aggressive network expansion strategy and in particular, boost plans to fly to all African capital cities by the end of 2013.