Kenyan airline company expands flights to South Sudan
September 24, 2007 (NAIROBI) — A Kenyan airline, East African Safari, is set to expand its operations with the launch of scheduled daily flights to the Southern Sudanese city of Juba at the end of the week, The Nairobi based Buissness daily reported.
Its entry into the route increases to four the number of Kenyan airlines flying to the Sudanese town that has become the centre of activity in ongoing reconstruction of the war torn region. Other Kenyan airlines operating scheduled flights on the route are Jetlink, African Express Air and Marsaland.
Launch of the flight is set to coincide with the introduction of a new business class on all routes this Friday. Mr George Kivinyo, the commercial director, said the company had spent $50,000 (Sh3.5 million) on a redesign of its planes to accommodate the new class.
Southern Sudan has been the focus of local air companies since former rebel group Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) signed a peace agreement with the Khartoum government in January 2005 — ushering in a period of reconstruction.
Juba, with its growing number of humanitarian agency and business travellers has become a fertile hunting ground for airlines wishing to grow their revenue.
Mr Kivinyo says East African Safari Air Express (EASAX) plans to fly between 30,000 and 40,000 passengers on the route annually by maintaining a cabin factor of 70 per cent on its 80 seater planes. “We are also targeting at least one tonne of cargo every month,” he added.
Popular cargo items on the Juba route include medicines, spare parts and consumer goods. Jackie Okutoi, the marketing manager at Jetlink which operates scheduled flights to Juba says the airline has been operating a high cabin factor of more than 80 per cent for both passenger and cargo. Jet link is one of the local players who fly this route and mainly operates a 50 or 70 seater plane.
EASAX will have to initially restrict its load capacity as it weights its fuelling options. The airline is still collecting samples on the quality of jet fuel in the town before it decides whether or not to fuel there.
Kivinyo said jet fuel price in Juba was above the regional average, making it cheaper to be fully fuelled in Nairobi leaving only a slight possibility of topping up there.
Currently, the airline does not hedge against the fluctuation of oil prices and instead passes a percentage of the costs to passengers as is norm in the aviation industry.
EASAX is a private company that has been in the market since 1998. It mainly operates scheduled flights to Kisumu, Lokichogio, Mombasa and Malindi on a seasonal basis.
(Business Daily)