This archive report was first published on 2 July 2019.
Kenya Airways is undergoing significant changes, including the abrupt exit of its Chief Operating Officer, Jan de Vegt, who left the airline on July 2, 2019.
According to a statement issued by the airline, de Vegt cited lack of support from the airline as the reason for his departure, which was marked by a series of tweets that were later deleted.
De Vegt, who was appointed as COO on August 1, 2016, had expressed his intention to return to Amsterdam, stating, “Kenya Airways decided to stop all support by KLM. For this reason, I am returning to Amsterdam… as there will be no COO in KQ from now on, I will close this account. Until we meet again,”
However, in a surprising turn of events, de Vegt later assured that the venture between Kenya Airways and Dutch partner KLM was still in place.
The exit of de Vegt comes two months after the airline's Chief Executive Officer, Sebastian Mikosz, announced his intention to step down at the end of the year.
Kenya Airways has attributed de Vegt's exit to the expiry of his contract and the airline's decision to delayer the COO area as part of its restructuring efforts.
According to the airline's Chief Human Resource Manager, Evelyne Munyoki, the restructuring aims to enhance operational efficiency, agility in decision-making, and additional visibility of key issues in the airline's business operations.
The COO role has been split into two areas, with Evans Kihara and Paul Njoroge taking on the positions of division directors for the technical and operations divisions, respectively.
Kenya Airways has also confirmed the hiring of 18 expatriates from Europe to help with the transformation exercise.
