With an eye on traffic, Kenya Airways mulls resuming flights to New Delhi

Kenya Airways plans to resume flights to New Delhi next year to tap the growing traffic on India-Africa routes.

"We would like to launch flights next year. We are in discussion with the Delhi airport," said Kenya Airways Chief Executive Officer Sebastian  Mikosz on the sidelines of IATA event in Delhi.

At present, Kenya Airways flies double daily to Mumbai. In 2012, it introduced a flight between Nairobi-Delhi, but withdrew the service later due to rising costs. Currently, no Indian carrier flies to Africa. 

Kenya Airways reduced it's half year losses is charting an expansion plan, including first non-stop flight to the US in winter schedule. Also on the cards are flights to Delhi and Beijing. Mikosz, who formerly headed LOT Polish Airlines, took charge of Kenya Airways last June.

"More than 50 per cent of our passengers between India-Kenya travels onward because Nairobi is a hub for connecting eastern, central and western Africa. We fly to 42 cities in Africa. There's a lot of traffic going to South Africa. Indian community in Kenya is very large. This year we have seen 15 per cent growth in traffic which has exceeded our estimates," he said.

Kenya Airways also has a codeshare pact with Jet Airways. "We would be happy if Jet Airways launches a service to Nairobi. It can fly from Mumbai or Chennai or Hyderabad and it will mean more connectivity between two countries," he said.