Kenya Airways’ #ticker:KQ pilots are earning millions of shillings despite working less than a third of the legally set flying hours amid a legal standoff that has blocked plans to lay off half of them.
The workers union has frozen Kenya Airways (KQ) plans to cut up to 207 of the 414 pilots on the carrier’s payroll last year over the next three years.
This has seen the pilots to work for an average of 30 hours monthly compared to the legally set limit of 105 hours and normally acceptable target of 72 hours following the coronavirus crisis that hit demand for travel.
Although the pilots are currently being paid 70 percent of their salaries due to Covid-induced pay cuts, they are technically on full pay because the airline is expected to settle the balance once it returns to growth.
KQ last year said the pilots account for 10 percent of the airline’s total workforce, but take home the equivalent of 45 percent of the overall pay to employees or Sh6.48 billion based on the carrier’s wage bill for the year to December.
This means that on average a KQ pilot costs the company Sh1.3 million, which matches the salaries and allowances of top chief executives of State-owned firms such as KenGen, Kenya-Re and Kenya Power.
“The pilots are currently averaging 30 hours a month while the normal productivity rate of pilots is 72 hours and the legal limit is 105 hours. That means that their productivity is less than 50 percent,” KQ said in an e-mail response to the Business Daily.
The carrier’s revenues plunged by more than half last year, as lockdown measures reduced passengers.
KQ expects its passenger business to recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2024.
This has reduced its need for pilots by at least half based on revenue projections.
“Based on our three-year projection, we will require 50 percent to 60 percent of pilots to efficiently support the reduced operations,” KQ chief executive Allan Kilavuka told the Business Daily earlier.The airline has been involved in protracted court fights with its pilots and has also suffered from poaching of talent by wealthy Middle East carriers that can afford to pay higher wages, triggering a talent war that has made pilots among Kenya’s best-paid workers.The number of KQ pilots dropped by 91 or 18 percent from 2014 to the end of 2019 when it provided a breakdown of its work force.The airline’s […]