Kenya Airways opens direct flight to China

NAIROBI - Kenya Airways has introduced flight changes to Far East Asia as the airline boosts its fleet to meet increased route expansion.

The airline CEO Titus Naikuni said Kenya Airways will launch direct flights three times a week to Chinese business hub Guangzhou on November 19 while maintaining the four-time-a-week linked flights to the city via Bangkok.

Naikuni said Far East is not only a key source of foreign direct investment and trade for Africa, but is also emerging as an important source market for the tourism sector in the continent.

"For these reasons, we are optimizing our services into the region so as to contribute towards sustainable development of the continent which is our core purpose," Naikuni said in a statement released in Nairobi on Monday.

The nonstop flight will be carried out by Boeing 777-300ER.

Naikuni said the flight changes were introduced to optimize the airline's services into the Far East, thus facilitating economic interaction between Africa and the region.

The nonstop flights to Guangzhou will depart from Nairobi every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Trade between Africa and China has grown exponentially in the last ten years and makes China the biggest trading partner of the continent.