Kenya Airways has stunned the market with a staggering Ksh.12 billion loss in the first half of the year, reversing a net profit of Ksh.513 million posted in the same period in 2024.
The airline’s revenues dropped 19 per cent from Ksh.91 billion in 2024 to Ksh.74 billion this year, as passenger numbers and available seat capacity declined sharply.
The national carrier blames the sharp decline on reduced capacity, following the temporary grounding of three long-haul aircraft and a shortage of spare parts.
“In 2025, some of our wide-body fleet, so we have nine Dreamliners in our fleet, we’re calling that wide body, meaning that it is literally a wide body and can fly long haul, to London, New York, and so on and so forth. Of those nine, three were grounded from January to June and July. The principal reason being that we do not have engines that we had sent to the shop back, in time for them to fly,” said KQ CEO Allan Kilavuka.
This left the carrier operating at 20 per cent below its normal capacity, significantly affecting its bottom line.
“In addition, we also had some narrow bodies that, for one reason or another other had been grounded, which also compromised the capacity that we had. The other reason is also, last year we had planned to bring in some aircraft to replace the narrow bodies that we were retiring; however, unfortunately, because of a shortage of aircraft in the market, we were not able to bring them in time. Of the four that we were hoping to bring, we were only able to bring one,” he added.
Kilavuka says most of the airline’s aircraft are due for engine overhauls, with each costing about USD 15 million and taking up to four months to complete, a huge challenge for the largely illiquid company.
“And then there’s a long queue in the shops to bring back the aircraft. So the problem that we are having is that we cannot jump the queue, because some of the people who are jumping the queue are able to finance that, to finance the fast-tracking. We cannot do that because of the position that we have financially,” the CEO noted.
Of its three grounded Dreamliners, the airline has successfully returned one to service, with the remaining two anticipated to follow suit later this year. Optimism for a second-half recovery is high, bolstered by the strong performance of newly launched routes, including London Gatwick and Nairobi to Abidjan.
The airline maintains that this turbulence is temporary. It says it plans to raise approximately USD 500 million in the later half of the year to fuel expansion, including new aircraft acquisitions, and return to profitability.
