Kenya Airways (KQ) is pursuing emergency funding and exploring recent funding avenues because the nationwide provider strikes to stabilise operations and restore the profitability it briefly achieved in 2024.
Talking on the Kenya Airways Aviation Media Lab in Mombasa on Wednesday, KQ Chairman Kiprono Kittony mentioned the airline would first safe short-term emergency financing to deal with rapid operational wants, earlier than tapping capital markets by its Public Restricted Firm itemizing.
“There’s a plan, and also you’re going to see a stronger and extra strong airline,” Kittony mentioned.
Appearing Managing Director Captain George Kamal, additionally current in Mombasa, outlined a multi-pronged reform agenda centred on operational effectivity, digital transformation, and cargo growth because the airline’s major levers for returning to sustainable profitability.
Three of KQ’s 9 Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners stay grounded because of a upkeep backlog linked to shortages of Basic Electrical GEnx-1B70 engine parts, constraints which have curtailed long-haul capability and delayed deliberate route launches, together with a proposed Nairobi–Beijing service.
Kenya Airways has lengthy navigated monetary headwinds. Privatised in 1996 and as soon as billed because the Pleasure of Africa, the airline expanded aggressively throughout the continent and into Europe and Asia. Nevertheless, mounting debt, a pricey fleet growth technique, and intense competitors from Gulf carriers eroded its funds by the 2010s.
The Kenyan authorities, which holds a majority stake alongside Air France-KLM and public shareholders, has repeatedly intervened to help the provider, together with a controversial 2019 renationalisation proposal that was shelved after parliamentary opposition. The COVID-19 pandemic dealt an extra blow, grounding the fleet for months and accelerating income losses.
A 2021 creditor restructuring deal offered respiratory room, enabling KQ to rebuild capability and rationalise its community. The airline’s return to revenue in 2024, its first in over a decade, was extensively seen as a watershed second, pushed by a ten % capability growth that carried 5.23 million passengers.
Management is now targeted on sustaining that momentum. The airline has beforehand introduced a $500 million capital increase goal geared toward rising its fleet from 34 to 53 plane over 5 years.
