Kenya Airways Nosedives into Ksh 7.6Billion Loss in FY18

Kenya Airways (KQ) has reported a Ksh 7.6 billion pretax loss in its 2018 financial year performance from Ksh 6.4Bn in FY17 due to a surge in operating costs.

“Fuel is our greatest challenge & this will be for a while, oil prices are up by 30%. Fuel represents over 40% of our direct operating costs. We started mitigating this risk by implementing a new hedging policy with minimal risk,” GMD & CEO Sebastian Mikosz.

However, the airline said the financial year 2018/19 covered 12 months compared to nine months the previous year. “This, therefore, means that the 2018 results are not directly comparable with the 2017 results as it is a representative of 12 months against the 9 months in 2017,” Chairman Michael Joseph said.

"We have an improvement by almost 20% of our net performance. Whilst the company might still be struggling, we are still moving in the right direction." GMD & CEO Sebastian Mikosz. #KQFY2018Results pic.twitter.com/hFqxSKxeiG

— Kenya Airways (@KenyaAirways) April 30, 2019

Besides 2018 being a challenging year for KQ, it witnessed growth in passenger numbers. This resulted in revenue growth of 41.3% y/y to Ksh 114.2 million. Additionally, a 52.3% y/y growth in cargo revenue to Ksh 8.68Bn boosted the uptick in total revenue.

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