The airline, one of the top carriers in Africa which is facing a strike by its staff in a pay dispute, weathered the global economic downturn better than most other airlines. However it booked a big loss in 2008/09 due to fuel hedges.
"We are looking at hitting the 3 million mark in terms of passengers and perhaps exceeding it and our target is 60,000 tons," Titus Naikuni told Reuters in an interview.
The airline, which is 26 percent owned by Air France-KLM , carried 2,697,134 million passengers and 57,700 tons of cargo last year.
Naikuni, who ran a soda ash firm before moving to Kenya Airways, said the numbers will be boosted by new destinations like Juba, Luanda and Muscat, which started this year.
It plans to launch more flights in Africa, which is at the heart of the carrier's strategy, offering traders and other travellers to the far east and Europe connections through its Nairobi hub.
"What is next is that we follow that strategy to make sure we cover every city in Africa. We would like to accomplish that goal in the next five years. It will also depend on a lot of things," he said, citing the availability of planes, pilots, airport spaces and bilateral agreements between governments.
A growing wave of foreign investment in Africa could benefit the continent's airlines, he said. (Reuters)
