Image@ AirlineGeeks | William Derrickson
Kenya Airways revealed plans to boost performance in July by adding an extra aircraft to its London Heathrow route. According to acting CEO George Kamal, in order to boost its transport capacity by 250 tonnes by the end of 2026, the airline also plans to add Boeing 777 freighters to its fleet.
This comes after the airline on Tuesday reported a pre-tax loss of 17.93 billion shillings ($138.30 million) in 2025, which it explains is due to lower revenue. The airline said last year’s overall revenue dropped 14% to 161.47 billion shillings, which was due to an 18% reduction in capacity.
The company’s poorer 2025 performance, according to Chief Financial Officer Mary Mwenga, was partially due to the temporary grounding of three of its wide-body Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners due to global supply chain issues.
Foreign exchange gains contributed to the airline making a profit in 2024, its first pre-tax profit in almost ten years. The shilling gained more than 20% versus the dollar that year.
Kenya Airways reported on Monday that the consequences of the Middle East conflict have increased demand for seats on its flights, with the majority of the gains coming from Europe, the United States, and Asia.
“We took advantage of the current situation and mainly rerouted a lot of customers from Europe. Instead of re-routing through the Gulf, they are back to reroute through Kenya, through our hub in Nairobi,” Kamal stated.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah