Kenya Airways announced commencement of flights to the Indian Capital city, New Delhi starting May 15th 2012. This service marks Kenya Airways' 57th global destination and 2nd in India subcontinent.

Kenya Airways will fly to New Delhi four times a week on a Boeing 767-300 as per the schedule below:

• KQ220 departs Nairobi every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 1350hrs local time, arrives Delhi 2330hrs local time.
• KQ221 departs Delhi every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 0050hrs local time, arrives Nairobi 0530hrs local time.

"New Delhi is the second city after Mumbai that we will be flying to India, we intend to open four more destinations in the sub continent as part of our 10 year expansion strategy," said Dr. Titus Naikuni, Kenya Airways Chief Executive Officer.

India's economic growth has averaged around 7% each year since 1997, making it one of the world’s largest emerging markets. According to industry forecasts, traffic flows between sub-Saharan Africa and India are expected to grow at a rate of 7.1% per annum over the next decade.

lndia has been aggressively promoting trade with Africa as it seeks to gain access to the continent’s emerging markets. The new route to Delhi seeks to expand and promote the bilateral and commercial relations between India and the African region.

India is Kenya’s sixth largest trading partner, with a vast business presence in the country. Recently, Kenya-India relations have improved buoyed by increasing bilateral trade that hit US $4.8 billion in 2010/2011.

Recently the airline announced a right issue offer to be launched on March 30th. The company hopes to raise Kshs20.7 billion from its shareholders. Proceeds from the rights issue are projected to fund implementation of a10-year expansion plan dubbed Project Mawingu; which would see the airline increase it number of destinations from the current 56 to 115 destinations by the year 2021.

Source: Kenya Airways