Kenya Airways: 40 years of conquering, possibilities

WITH a leased Boeing 707-320 from the British Midland Airways, a small East African country took to the sky and the world held its collective breath as the country’s aircraft left London for Nairobi, to the cheers of hundreds of Kenyans awaiting an arrival at the Embakasi Airport.

That was 40 years ago. With a GDP per capita of $1,245 as at 2013 and GDP of $55.24 billion and population of 44.35 million in the same year, Kenya, a country with coastline on the Indian Ocean, continues to amaze pundits, even in the face of toughest challenges and stiffest competition.

Over the last four decades since the national carrier, the Kenya Airways has connected Africa with the world; analysts are saying that the airline has emerged as an important economic drive in Kenya and the region as a whole.

Journeying through exhilarating, as well as turbulent moments, Kenya Airways has grown to become a leading player in Africa since it was incorporated in 1977 and has recorded some significant achievements, company’s Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mbuvi Ngunze, said last Sunday at a small celebration to mark the 40th anniversary of the airline with customers and partners at JKIA Terminal 1A, in Nairobi, Kenya.

“Today, Kenya Airways connects directly from Nairobi to more than 54 destinations in four continents, with a fleet of 36 aircrafts from the initial four. It has been an interesting journey and we believe our best years are ahead,” Ngunze said.

Walking back to the time in the airways’ history, Hafeez Balogun, Kenya Airways’ Country Manager in Nigeria, talked about those times when the carrier flew the continents, and some parts of the world with such equipment as Douglas DC-8, Fokker F27, Airbus A310, and Boeing 707- 320 in early 1970s and 1980s to Boeing 7557-200, Boeing 737-300 in 1990s, Saab 340b, Boeing 737-800, Boeing 777-200ER and Embraer 170 LR, among others in the 2000s.

Today, however, the airways boasts of having one of the youngest fleet in the region, operating state of the art modern aircraft – Embraer 190 AR, Boeing 737 and the 787- Dreamliner “that have seen our operations remain focused on offering unparalleled customer experience.”

Ngunze said the national carrier’s growth has been characterised by a strategic network expansion focusing on Africa, fleet modernisation, and high quality service among other facets of development.

It will be recalled that only this month; Kenya Airways signed a new agreement to expand connectivity between Asia and Africa, in which the codeshare partnership with Hong Kong Airlines allows passengers to book single-ticket travel between Nairobi, Bangkok and Hong Kong, using a combination of the two carriers.

“This partnership will enable us and Hong Kong Airlines to offer our customers seamless connection, especially for our passengers in the region who mainly travel to these Asian cities for business. Our guests will now be able to enjoy daily flights between Hong Kong and Nairobi up from the current three weekly flights,” Ngunze had said at the time of inking the deal.

The fact that the airline was the first African flag bearer carrier to be privatized, in 1996, was an opportunity for the national carrier to get listed across East Africa, opening commercial partnership opportunities with various global carriers, including a joint venture with KLM and codeshares with airlines in Europe, Asia and Africa. Through its membership in the Sky Team Alliance, Kenya Airways offers service to 1,057 destinations in more than 177 countries.

“These achievements have earned us accolades in this continent and beyond. Kenya Airways has been named for the fourth time in a row Best Business Class and recognised as Africa’s Leading Airline at the World Travel Awards, a position we plan to continue to hold.

“Beyond our direct activities and business, we cannot fail to recognise Kenya Airways role’s in the economic transformation of this region and by extension the African continent. The last four decades has seen KQ connect Africa to the world and the world to Africa, not only transporting people and goods but also ideas that have laid foundation of our modern civilization through commerce that has opened up economies in several countries, wealth creation and the general people to people interaction that has enabled inter cultural exchange,” Ngunze said with pride.

The journey hasn’t been without life-threatening bumps, however. An example is the Sh26 billion loss in revenue in 2016. Another is the ill-fated Airbus A310 flight number KQ431 headed for Nairobi from Abidjan, which crashed shortly after take-off, killing 169 people on board in January 2000. The crash of Boeing 737 flight number KQ507 from Cameroon to Nairobi at Douala International Airport, killing all the 114 passengers on board also comes to mind. Despite these, it is remarkable the airline has maintained a largely clean safety record, recording only two fatal crashes in 40 years of operations.

Beyond these challenges however, Ngunze said growth and economic transformation of the region and African continent is largely tied to success of Kenya Airways owing to its pivotal role in promoting trade; cultural exchanges, enabling an exchange of ideas as well as promoting peaceful co-existence among people of different beliefs and cultural backgrounds.

As the airline celebrates its 40 years, Ngunze is focusing on “vast” opportunities ahead. “The aviation space in Africa is growing and we are poised to take advantage of this. We aim to continue evolving KQ into a standards-setter for other airlines and aviation sector competency beyond Africa,” he said.

Given that the airline started its journey with a leased aircraft in 1977 and grew to record over 160 takeoffs and landings daily across the network; carries over 11,000 passengers onboard daily, having uplifted 2.2 million between April and September 2016, the highest number of passengers uplifted in the history of the airline; has the biggest restaurant in Kenya serving over 10,000 meals on board on a daily basis; flies to 54 destinations across Africa, Europe, Asia and Far East; and uplifts over 160 tonnes of cargo daily, observers are pretty confident that the airline could pull off another 40 year in business, despite current trends in the global aviation industry.