Kenya Airways to acquire cargo freighter

Kenya Airways announced today that it is developing its cargo division further by boosting its cargo capacity. The airline is for the first time set to acquire one freighter and plans to increase the freighter fleet as business demands.

Speaking while opening the Africa Air Cargo Conference in Nairobi, Group Managing Director and CEO Dr Titus Naikuni said that the airline was sourcing for a cargo freighter to be in service by next financial year which starts in April 2011. 

He said that the airline had noted rising demand for cargo services from customers and was keen to support the growth in intra-Africa Cargo growth. “The freighter will be used for operations across Africa destinations.”

It is intended that the freighter will be available both to the wider Kenya Airways network as well as interline partners with regular intra-Africa traffic. He added that the freighter service will be complemented by capacity offered by wide-body aircraft already serving Lusaka, Lilongwe, Harare and Kinshasa routes.

The impending addition of the freighter follows the successful launch of a three times weekly 767-300 service to Rome. “We aim to increase our services to London to double-daily served by Boeing 777-200 as soon as slot availability permits at London Heathrow Airport. From April, we shall also be upgrading our daily Amsterdam service from 767-300 to 777-200 which affords greater cargo capacity,” he said.

This he said would not only take care of increased capacity for Passenger business but also increase the Cargo uptake to Europe.

Dr Naikuni added that International aviation analysts have predicted that air cargo to grow exponentially especially intra Africa and between Africa and Asia with Nairobi increasingly playing the role of a cargo hub for Africa.  He called for the expansion of cargo handling infrastructure particularly at the JKIA as well Kisumu and Moi international airports. 

“As Kenya Airways we have invested in cold room facilities to accommodate the growing horticultural export business. Our new Fast Flexible Fresh (FFF) facility is a 2500 meter square warehouse with the capacity to store between 90-100 pallets,” he added.

According to Kenya Airports Authority Airfreight, in 2010 exports at 196,000 Metrics Tons accounted for 86% of all cargo throughput with imports at 32,800 Metric Tons accounting for the remaining 14%. In 2010, perishables accounted for 85% of total exports and flowers in particular accounting for 41% of the total. Europe remains the destination of choice for Kenyan exports with 68% of total exports and the Middle East at 14%.

Perishables constitute the vast majority of exports from Kenya with flowers being the greatest contributor followed by fresh fruit and vegetables.   Africa in general remains a net importer with imports outstripping exports. JKIA is an exception in Africa in that its airfreight exports are greater than imports. However the potential for Airfreight is substantial.  GDPs of African countries are growing at impressive rates and investments in infrastructure as well as growth in consumer culture fuelled by increased purchasing power will translate can only translate into a brighter future for African Airfreight.