Kenya Airways has received gets KSh5 billion as a commercial loan from the National Treasury to complete its scheduled engine overhaul program on its E190 Embraer fleet.
The airline said the overhaul program is required every eight years in order to uphold the ‘highest levels of safety and maintain reliability and planned network schedules’.
“As an airline, we need to be efficient across our operations but more importantly, across our fleet,” said Micheal Joseph, chairman, Kenya Airways on Friday.
The Embraer fleet is KQ’s largest and is described as its network ‘workhorse’.
“The refurbishment on our two Boeing 737-700 aircraft, will guarantee our passengers a better experience on their flights with us. The airline commits to prudent utilization of the funds to ensure value for money,” he added.
The loan to the airline is in addition to KSh24.2 billion it already wrote off in the last three years.
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Allan Kilavuka, the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive said that Kenya plays a vital role in the aviation industry in Africa and the capital injection will go a long way in enhancing Kenya Airways’ operations and strengthening of the fleet.
“It is on this premise that this year, we identified six key areas of focus which are improving our customer’s experience, reducing costs and wastage, strengthening operational efficiency, stabilising the organisation, growing our profitability and managing relationships with our stakeholders,” Kilavuka emphasised.
In August 2019, KQ’s first-half pretax loss doubled from a year earlier to 8.56 billion Kenyan shillings.
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