Kenya Airways say it will introduce new flights to Shanghai this August. The planned China route comes just months after China granted Kenya approved destination status last December.

Kenya Airways announced on Friday it has recorded the highest profit in its history after its annual after-tax profit tripled to 50 million dollars from 17 million dollars due to cost-cutting and an increase in passengers.

According to the World Tourism Organization rankings in 2003, China was seventh in the world's top spenders, with 15.4 billion US dollars having been spent on international tourism.

As of November 2004, China's aviation traffic peaked at 16.37 million passengers.