Kenyan Airways domestic traffic upbeat

Passengers carried by Kenyan Airways on its domestic routes rose 35 percent during the past holiday season on the back of increased flights and a new route, the airline said on Friday. The carrier, which is 26 percent owned by Air France-KLM, in October estimated it would carry 3 million passengers in the year to March 2011, up from 2.7 million a year earlier. It said cargo hauled would rise to 60,000 tonnes in the same period from 57,700 in 2009. Although the airline's strategy hinges on linking Africa to the world through its Nairobi hub, domestic passengers are an important part of its business. It serves the western city of Kisumu and the coast. Soaring demand for travel to the coastal city of Mombasa by holiday-makers led to an increase in the frequency of daily flights to 10 from seven, rising to 16 flights in the run-up to Christmas, Kenya Airways said. Total domestics flights during the period jumped 84 percent, the airline said in a statement, adding a new service to the resort town of Malindi on the north coast had also contributed to the rise in passengers flown.