This archive report was first published on 11 September 2019.
Kenya Airways, plagued by corporate greed, is now facing a severe pilot shortage that has forced the airline to cancel 91 flights in the first two weeks of last month, with 68 of those cancellations attributed to the shortage, according to internal communication reported by Reuters on September 10, 2019.
The airline has 435 pilots, short of the required 497, and is seeking to recruit at least 20 new pilots for its Boeing 737 jets on two-year contracts, while giving existing pilots ample time off. Ten of the existing pilots will be promoted to the airline's Boeing 787 fleet.
The projected impact of the crew shortage is $50 million annually, which could have been avoided, Kenya Airways has said.
The airline's frequent cancellations of its cargo freighter have led to cargo customers opting out, exacerbating the airline's financial woes.
The Kenya Airline Pilots Association has criticized the airline for not recruiting enough pilots on time, with secretary general Murithi Nyagah stating, “It is no secret that Kenya Airways has one of the lowest rates of pilot recruitment in the world.”
The airline's future looks increasingly uncertain, with its mounting debts and losses, including a first-half pretax loss of 8.56 billion Kenyan shillings, more than double that seen in the same period of 2018.
Board chairman Michael Joseph has blamed taxes slapped on the national airline for its poor performance, saying, “Nationalisation is not what we want to be but it is what we need to be in order to be where we want to be.”
