Kenya Airways Has Been Losing Ksh 47.7 Million Daily

During the week, Kenya Airways shocked Kenyans when it announced that its loss for the first 6 months of 2019 had ballooned to 8.6 billion shillings. Most Kenyans expected the airline to announce profits, for once.

Breaking down the recent losses by Kenya Airways shows that the airline was losing 1.43 billion shillings monthly and 47.7 million shillings daily.

In seven months alone, Kenya Airways lost 118 million shillings due to flight delays and cancellations, with more than 52 percent of the flights having been canceled.

The operational costs expanded by 10.9 billion shillings to 67.1 billion shillings. The airline increased its routes and flight frequency which is costing it as most of the flights are often half-empty, making them uneconomical.

What the recent losses by Kenya Airways indicate is that the airline is becoming an empty shell, flying all over the world with no returns into the economy.

Kenya Airways went into financial turmoil when it made losses to the tune of 27 billion shillings. That was the largest loss to ever be witnessed in a Kenyan company.

Read Also:

• Kenya Airways Sinks Deeper Into Double Losses
• KQ Lost Ksh 118 Million to Flight Delays and Cancellations

Ironically, those who ran down Kenya Airways then were awarded other government positions. Nobody was brought to book to answer to how KQ ran into such huge losses.

Ever since the huge loss, Kenya Airways has been trying to recover with the management expressing hope that the airline was set to be back to profitability in 8 months, 3 years ago.

Kenya Airways has been busy opening up new direct routes including the launch of direct flights from Nairobi to the United States of America instead of concentrating on making the existing routes economically viable.

Earlier this year, Kenya Airways pulled one on Kenyans by suggesting to take over the running and operation of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

For Kenya Airways to want to run the operations of JKIA was the biggest joke of the year and one of its kind in the aviation industry. It was like a patient in the ICU wanting to run tests on the doctor.

The proposal for the airline to operate JKIA was rejected and the airline blamed politics for it.

Members of Parliament have given a go-ahead for Kenya Airways to be nationalized. This means the government, through the National Treasury, will have to buy 100 percent of shares from both major and minor shareholders.

Nationalizing Kenya Airways means the burden will now be carried by the taxpayer. What will happen to those who brought it down?