What Is the Status of Kenya Airways’ Fleet at The Moment?

By / Published August 11, 2015 | 9:13 am

Kenya Airways is still the pride of Africa despite the recent financial problems that are (hopefully) being addressed and soon the airline will regain its glory and keep the global aviation industry moving.

In business, there are only two ways to go about, you’re either making profits or making losses and whenever you’re making loss, it should never be taken as a failure but a stage to plan for a better comeback.

Kenya Airways owns a number of aircraft that are both a blessing and a curse to one of the world’s best airlines and one of the largest in Africa, more popularly known as the Pride of Africa.

They are a blessing because they have improved efficiency in service delivery. Passengers as well as cargo are able to move swiftly with minimum delays. They are also a curse because the recent loss of more than 20 billion is greatly attributed to the ownership of the aircraft since more than 5 billion shillings was spent on maintenance and fueling of these aircraft with fuel alone creating a loss close to more than KES 1bn.

This means that if Kenya Airways did not own these aircrafts; the company would have reduced the loss realized by 5 billion shillings. That’s progress.

Currently, Kenya Airways has a fleet of 39 aircrafts that are in use both locally and internationally for passenger as well as cargo transportation.

These aircraft include: 15 Embraer E190, 3 B777-300ER, 8 B737-800, 4 B737-700, 7 B787-700 (Dreamliner) and two B737-300 freighters.

The airline decided to retire its Boeing 777 fleet, which mainly operates the long-haul routes. The recently acquired Dreamliners will operate on these routes.

Kenya Airways recently received its third Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft from the manufacturer in the United States.

The aircraft, which landed at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, was flown in by Captain John Mathias Kimani, who is also the B787 fleet manager.

However, according to business experts, Kenya Airways would do better if it owned no aircraft at all.

This is because billions are spent in maintaining these aircraft and the money would have been used in meeting other pressing needs in the company like funding better performing sections of the company.

The best option at the moment is for Kenya Airways to sell some of its aircraft and use that money to make a comeback in the business world.