A Kenyan airline, East African Safari, is set to expand its operations with the launch of scheduled daily flights to the Southern Sudanese city of Juba at the end of the week.

Its entry into the route increases to four the number of Kenyan airlines flying to the Sudanese town that has become the centre of activity in ongoing reconstruction of the war torn region. Other Kenyan airlines operating scheduled flights on the route are Jetlink, African Express Air and Marsaland.

Launch of the flight is set to coincide with the introduction of a new business class on all routes this Friday. Mr George Kivinyo, the commercial director, said the company had spent $50,000 (Sh3.5 million) on a redesign of its planes to accommodate the new class.

Southern Sudan has been the focus of local air companies since former rebel group Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) signed a peace agreement with the Khartoum government in December 2005 -- ushering in a period of reconstruction.

Juba, with its growing number of humanitarian agency and business travellers has become a fertile hunting ground for airlines wishing to grow their revenue.

Mr Kivinyo says East African Safari Air Express (EASAX) plans to fly between 30,000 and 40,000 passengers on the route annually by maintaining a cabin factor of 70 per cent on its 80 seater planes. "We are also targeting at least one tonne of cargo every month," he added.

Popular cargo items on the Juba route include medicines, spare parts and consumer goods. Jackie Okutoi, the marketing manager at Jetlink which operates scheduled flights to Juba says the airline has been operating a high cabin factor of more than 80 per cent for both passenger and cargo. Jet link is one of the local players who fly this route and mainly operates a 50 or 70 seater plane.

EASAX will have to initially restrict its load capacity as it weights its fuelling options. The airline is still collecting samples on the quality of jet fuel in the town before it decides whether or not to fuel there.

Mr Kivinyo said jet fuel price in Juba was above the regional average, making it cheaper to be fully fuelled in Nairobi leaving only a slight possibility of topping up there.

Currently, the airline does not hedge against the fluctuation of oil prices and instead passes a percentage of the costs to passengers as is norm in the aviation industry.

EASAX is a private company that has been in the market since 1998. It mainly operates scheduled flights to Kisumu, Lokichogio, Mombasa and Malindi on a seasonal basis.

The airline is the leading player on the Nairobi - Kisumu route helped by its offer of more seats on what is one of the busiest domestic routes in the country. EASAX flies 80 seater planes compared to Jet links 72, Fly 540 45, and Kenya Airways 35.

"We are realising a cabin factor of 80 per cent on this route making it our most lucrative," he said. Mr Kivinyo said that airlines revenue had increased by more than 30 per cent in the past three months riding on increased passenger volumes that grew from an average of 6,000 to 8,000 a month.

It is estimated the Kisumu route has a customer base of 20,000 passengers monthly with all the key players recording over 70 per cent cabin factor.

"The route has developed rapidly this year, and now has a good mixture of customers," Fly 540's operations director, Nickson Ooko, said.

Majority of customers on this route are NGO workers and business people. Kenya's aviation industry has seen new players enter the market raising the level of competition and lowering prices.

In some routes, fares have dropped by half, drawing a large number of travellers who previously used the road. Three years ago, for example, a return ticket to Kisumu cost about Sh10,000 but this has since dropped to as little as Sh5,000.

In the past one month, the Kenya Civil Aviation, has licensed a number of airlines to fly both domestic and international routes.