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Kenya Airways to launch flights to Vietnam

Xinhua, January 29, 2015 Adjust font size:

Kenya Airways said Thursday it plans to launch thrice weekly flights to Vietnam's fastest growing municipal city of Hanoi from March.

The airline's CEO Mbuvi Ngunze said Kenya Airways will fly its Boeing 787 Dreamliner to provide strong connections to the key markets in Africa.

"Vietnam has shown a considerable and stable economic growth over the recent years, including an increase in trade with Africa, " Ngunze said in a statement issued in Nairobi.

"As the first airline to directly connect Vietnam to Africa, we are sure to leverage on this growth. Together with our SkyTeam partner Vietnam Airlines, we are very confident the addition of Hanoi to our network will be a success," he added.

Kenya Airways in 2013 raised over 250 million U.S. dollars in rights issue to increase its fleet and expand the air route network to link Nairobi to all African countries and the rest of the world.

The national carrier raised the money to the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) to fund its expansion plans that will see it more than double the number of passengers and increased its presence in Africa and across the globe.

The national carrier will become the first and only African airline to link Vietnam directly to Africa with flights to Hanoi from March.

Ngunze said the airline will work closely with Skyteam partner Vietnam Airlines, whose hub is Hanoi, in order to provide further travel options into Japan, Malaysia, Korea and China. He said the potential of Vietnam as a country with strong economic growth and a growing middle class is significant.

In 2014, Kenya Airways has deployed its new fleet of six B787 Dreamliner aircraft for commercial service, mostly on routes to Asia and Europe. The Dreamliner recently took its inaugural flight to London, one of the airline's most prominent routes. Three more Dreamliners are scheduled to arrive in 2015.

With the introduction of the B787 Dreamliner, Ngunze said new routes and cities are now accessible from Nairobi economically, which has paved the way for Hanoi as an additional destination. Endi