Kenya Airways cuts loss to Sh9.86 billion in six months

Kenya Airways (KQ) has reported a Sh9.86 billion loss for the six months ending June 2022, a 14.4 percent improvement from the Sh11.5 billion loss the national carrier reported during a similar period last year.

During an Investor briefing on August 24, KQ management blamed the loss on increased fuel costs over the six months, growing interest rates for loans it owes and currency fluctuations.

“The impact that we see of the fuel price is significant because without the impact of the fuel price, our loss for the half year would have been Sh3 billion. That is comparable to probably our best year in 2018,” said KQ Managing Director (MD) Allan Kilavuka.

The airline said fuel costs which were Sh11.1 billion during the six months, increased by 65 percent year-on-year, and constituted nearly 20 percent of its Sh57 billion overheads.

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But the loss was even as the carrier reported a 76 percent growth in revenues, raking in Sh48.1 billion, compared to the Sh27.4 billion revenues between January and June 2021.

To continue cutting costs, KQ says it is returning some two aircrafts to their lessors as well as freezing hiring of new employees, even as it banks on the government to support it financially.

“As much as we are ramping up capacity, we are controlling the intake of employees to ensure better productivity by matching the workload with the number of employees that are there,” said KQ’s chief finance officer Hellen Mwariri.