KENYA Airways carried 10.9 per cent more passengers between April and June 2013 than it did over the same period last year boosted by gradual recovery on European routes.

Operating statistics released by the airline yesterday showed KQ had a total 932,912 passengers during the first quarter of financial year 2013/2014 compared to 841,238 last year.

"The passenger uplift to Europe at 90,517 shows some recovery compared to last year's level with an achieved cabin factor of 68.5 per cent being better than prior year's 66.8 per cent," said the airline in a statement.

Cabin factor represents the percentage of seats sold.

Business travel within Kenya pushed up passenger numbers on local routes to 222,516 translating to a growth of 22.1 per cent.

Uplifted passengers to Middle East and Far East regions increased to 139,275 translating to an increase of 12.3 per cent. The route was boosted by a rise in flight capacity to these destinations.

Capacity to this region grew by 12.8 per cent driven by the introduction of daily operations to Guangzhou via Bangkok coupled with increased deployment of larger B777 aircraft to Bombay.

Political turmoil in Egypt cancelled out a capacity increase on the North African region despite increased flight frequency to Juba. For the entire Africa, passengers carried on the various routes within the region increased by 9.4 per cent to 480,604.

The airline said there was a drop in cargo business prompting it to cut cargo capacity offered by 4 per cent. It did not however say by how many tonnes cargo volumes dropped.