National carrier Kenya Airways has taken delivery of its second fully owned Embraer E-190 in Skyteam livery. The aircraft is the second of eight fully owned Embraer’s that KQ is acquiring this Financial year in its fleet expansion plans.

The aircraft registered as 5Y- FFB, becomes the first Embraer that will be emblazoned with the SkyTeam Livery on its tail and fuselage in addition to the Kenya Airways logo. This makes it the second KQ operated aircraft with the Sky Team livery alongside the B737-700 aircraft already in the Sky Team livery.

“Kenya Airways is the only airline in Africa that is in the SkyTeam Alliance, and with our flight and network expansion strategy, we are well poised to take advantage of this unique positioning to take traffic from markets such as China into the rest of Africa and Europe”,KQ Chief Executive Titus Naikuni said while receiving the plane on Saturday.

 He said that the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is in a good geographical position, and Kenya Airways through its 10-year Growth Plan is taking advantage of this position to take advantage of the surge in East to West traffic, driven by new investments and increased disposal income in Asian countries.

SkyTeam

Kenya Airways currently flies to 58 destinations; 46 of them being to African destinations. However, through the SkyTeam Alliance, Kenya Airways takes passengers to over 926 destinations in 173 countries and 490 lounges globally. SkyTeam partner airline passengers can access the former’s expansive destination network in Africa through Kenya Airways.

The new plane touched down at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport early Saturday evening 15th September 2012 from Brazil where it is manufactured.

Commenting on the choice of Embraer E-190 over other aircrafts, Dr Naikuni said, the aircrafts they are taking possession of are versatile and cost efficient for short to medium haul flights. Currently, KQ uses Embraer aircraft on domestic and short regional routes including Kisumu, Entebbe, Kigali, Bujumbura, Addis Ababa, Djibouti, Maputo, Gaborone, Kilimanjaro and Nampula.

The new plane came just a fortnight after KQ took delivery of its first fully owned Embraer. With the new acquisition, Kenya Airways now boasts of a fleet of 12 Embraer aircrafts, with 8 more expected by the end of the financial year.

The airline has also ordered three Boeing 777-300ER aircraft expected from October 2013 and nine Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft to be delivered from 2014 partly financed using proceeds from the Rights Issue successfully concluded in June.