Lonrho Aviation's Fly540 Reports Strong Demand

19 December 2011

Lonrho Plc

Lonrho Aviation's Fly540 Reports Strong Demand

Lonrho Plc is pleased to announce that following the successful opening of the third strategic hub for Fly540 in Ghana, its regional African airline business, Fly540, is expecting record passenger numbers for the month of December. Load factors across East Africa, Angola and Ghana based on passengers flown and forward bookings will exceed 80% for the month.

Fly540 currently flies in Kenya, Tanzania, Southern Sudan, Uganda, Angola and Ghana and is planning on opening routes to additional countries early in the New Year based on the increasing demand for this low cost model.

Fly540 Kenya celebrated carrying its one millionth passenger in August this year and is reporting strong year on year passenger growth.

In Angola, additional aircraft have already been sourced to meet better than forecast demand with two further ATR 72's mobilising in January 2012. Fly540 Angola is running at almost full capacity with a load factor over 85% expected for December. The arrival of these further aircraft will increase the destinations flown domestically in Angola over the coming months and Fly540 Angola is planning to build capacity to service a domestic route network of 15 destinations throughout Angola.

Fly540 Ghana which launched operations recently has seen an impressive immediate demand and will have 80% + load levels in December.

David Lenigas, Executive Chairman of Lonrho Plc commented:

"The demand for quality regional aviation in Africa is clear and with the three hubs of Fly540 now operational in Kenya, Ghana and Angola, the airline is delivering on its objective of creating a first world pan African service. Building on the strong base now implemented, the airline will continue to grow in 2012 and expand the network with the deployment of further aircraft and new routes."

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