Kenya Airways carried lesser passengers on the local routes in the 2nd quarter of  2012 compared to the numbers it achieved last year in the same period. In a statement released today, on the domestic front, capacity reduced by 9.6% compared to similar period last year.

The national carrier has attributed this to downgrade on the Mombasa route from the larger B737 aircraft to the smaller Embraer E190.  Passengers uplifted within Kenya at 202,112 reduced by 0.4%. The resulting cabin factor of 79.9% was above 74.0% achieved last year.

Budget airlines

Kenya Airways has decided to re-introduce a low budget carrier to operate on the local routes later this year. KQ and budget operator Fly540 received approval from Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) to launch low-cost flights in the region using narrow body, short haul airliners.

Kenya Airways  which will operate as Jambo Jet has indicated that it will have regional return fares at tunes of about KES 6,000.  Currently, a return air ticket to Eldoret for instance would cost KES 10,954 on Kenya Airways, KES 11,215 on Fly540 and at KES 13,131 on Jetlink Express. Should Kenya Airways tag their return ticket fares at KES 6,000, that would be a 45% reduction in fares on that route.

[Read: Cheap Air Travel Coming to Kenya]

With such low fares, Kenya Airways is expected increase its passenger numbers based on the number of new air travelers who will take advantage of low air fares as a result of the price wars.

The total passenger tally for KQ for the period under review (2nd quarter) which closed at 1,004,425 was at par with similar period last year resulting to a reduced cabin factor of 72.9% level.

Passenger uplift to Europe at 134,214 was a reduction on last year’s level of 158,247 following the capacity reduction.  This resulted to 82.7% seat occupancy level that was at close to prior year’s level of 83.3%.  In the Middle East, Far East and India regions, uplifted passenger traffic at 155,940 showed a marked improvement of 16.5% compared to same period prior year. The realised cabin factor of 72.9% was below prior year’s level of 88.3%.

Within Africa but excluding Kenya, passengers uplifted totalled 512,159 indicating a decline of 0.5% on the back of 5.0% capacity growth.  The resultant passenger cabin factor of 65.9% was 2.0 percentage points lower than similar period last year.

The airline has been in and out of court in the recent months owing to its decision to lay off staff in a bid to cut costs.

[Read: Kenya Airways Lays Off Staff]