Kenya Airways Appoints New Commercial Director

A Former Air France-KLM executive Mr.Vincent Coste, has been appointed as the new Commercial Director in charge of sales, network  planning and Revenue Management at Kenya Airways. A position that has been vacant since October 2015.

The position was left vacant after Gerard Clarke left the airline, leading to the appointment of Thomas Omondi as the acting director, the then Strategy Director.

Coste worked with Air France for seven years before it merged with KLM, when he then got to serve a number of senior positions in the airline. His last engagement before taking the managerial position at Kenya Airways was at Qatar Airways where he worked as the carrier’s senior vice president for the Indian sub-continent for two years.

Mr.Costed joins the airline at time when it is undergoing a number of transformations in a move to get back to its feet. Just recently, Kenya Airways revenues for the half year to September went down by 3.5 percent to 54.7 billion shillings due to lower passenger revenues that lowered by 1.8 billion shillings to 46.6 billion shillings. This drop-in revenue was cushioned by cost-cutting initiatives such as the downsizing of its fleet which reduced the company’s fleet ownership costs by Sh4.6 billion to Sh8.5 billion.

The airline, which has sold or leased out several planes, also registered a drop-in revenue from freight and mail services as well as from handling services offers competitor airlines. Mr. Coste is expected to come up with concepts which will improve the airline’s dwindling income with fewer planes as well as making decision on where to fly, how often and, more importantly, how much to charge customers.

Related: Why Kenya Airways is in Safe Hands and on the Right Track