Total revenue was up by 25.7 percent over the previous year. Cargo revenue rose by 35.1 percent year-on-year as freight tonnage climbed by 10.8 percent and the yield increased by 6.8 percent.

The airline highlighted southern Africa, Europe, West and Central Africa, the Far East, Northern Africa and the Middle East as the regions showing the high growth in cargo volumes.

This was achieved mainly through a “better equipment mix in belly capacity deployment”, a statement said.

East Africa and domestic volumes saw a decline in tonnage, however, largely due to capacity constraints in the former case and to reduced demand in the latter.

Kenya Airways succeeded in maintaining profitability during the 2011/12 financial year, although its net profit margin fell from 4.1 percent to 1.5 percent.

The carrier blamed high fuel prices, the Eurozone crisis and the generally weak state of the economy in the West for the drop, and pointed out that, given the challenging economic and geopolitical environment, its net profit for the period under review “compares favourably against many industry players”.

» Kenya Airways is introducing widebody capacity on its Lagos and Accra routes from Nairobi saying it expects a “significant impact” on its cargo revenue as a result.