A Kenya Airways plane in flight. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP Kenya Airways has announced that it will be making some adjustments on some of its routes by either stopping, cutting on frequencies or suspending flights altogether.
Experts have warned that the number of passengers will remain subdued as flights the world over resume operations.
Major airlines including Ethiopia, Qatar, Emirates and RwandAir, have announced their imminent resumption of flights.
KQ reported a Sh12.9 billion loss for the financial year ended December 2019, up from Sh7.7 billion in 2018, with losses attributed to increased cost of operations.
Airlines are set to take to the international skies this Saturday, many aware of the turbulent times ahead, and are banking on passenger goodwill to stabilise operations once they get airborne.
Industry stakeholders have warned that it will not be until 2023 when carriers are expected to reach the traffic that was there pre-Covid-19 and return to profitability.
The next two years will be very crucial for survival of airlines as they will need to recover the money they have lost during a four-month grounding resulting from the scourge.
“Passenger airlines need to adopt a resilient strategy over the next two years and operate [fewer] aircraft, which can meet the travellers and network demand,” said Mr Sanjeev Gadhia, an aviation expert and chief executive officer of Astral Aviation.
Mr Gadhia said carriers need to focus on cargo too as an additional revenue source and convert some of their older fleet to carry freight as demand will be there after the pandemic.
“By cutting cost and adapting a resilient strategy, airlines will be able to weather the storm,” he said in an interview with Smart Company.
MAKING ADJUSTMENTS Kenya Airways has announced that it will be making some adjustments on some of its routes by either stopping, cutting on frequencies or suspending flights altogether.The airline has cut down on the routes it plies by 50 per cent and it will service 27 destinations when it resumes flights next month.The major routes where resumptions have been delayed include US and China, where flights are expected to resume in October, according to the carrier. Terminal 1A at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP Experts have warned that the number of passengers will remain subdued as flights the world over resume operations.Major airlines including Ethiopia, Qatar, Emirates and […]