This archive report was first published on 27 August 2019.
Kenya Airways (KQ) has released its half-year results for 2019, revealing a significant financial setback.
The airline recorded a pretax loss of Sh8.56 billion in the half-year ended June 30th, 2019, more than double the loss from the same period last year.
According to the results, KQ's cumulative revenue expanded to Sh58.5 billion, a 12 percent growth from Sh52.19 billion registered in the same period last year.
However, the airline's operational costs grew by Sh10.9 billion to Sh67.1 billion, largely due to increased routes and flights frequency.
Kenya Airways Chief Executive Officer Sebastian Mikosz attributed the loss to increased operational costs and elevated impairment losses.
"We invested in a lot of money on the new routes especially on operational costs since we are still working towards raising our profits from this," said Mikosz.
The airline brought back two Boeing 787 aircraft from sub-lease to support new routes, which added to the operational costs.
Despite the financial challenges, KQ's passenger numbers rose by 6.6 percent to 2.4 million in the period under review.
