Kenya Airways has put things in motion last week to sell off four Boeing B777-200s, which were acquired from the manufacturer new between 2004 and 2007.
Parked outside the airline’s Embakasi headquarters for the past several months, these aircraft have been replaced on long haul routes by the newer and more fuel-efficient Boeing B787 Dreamliner and the larger B777-300ER. Kenya Airways presently has seven Dreamliners in service with two more due for delivery and three of the larger Boeing B777-300ER, that have a greater passenger and cargo capacity compared to the 777-200s and also a longer range. It is understood that Kenya Airways has contracted Cabot Aviation in the UK to sell the planes on their behalf, though it is not clear if the three B777-300ER will also be sold off when the remaining Boeing B787 Dreamliners have been delivered to Nairobi, or if they will remain on the fleet, now that traffic to Kenya is picking up again.
B777s presently sell new at prices ranging between around $260 million to around $290 million, depending on the model type, but aircraft which have been in use for over a decade, while still relatively new, will of course attract much lower offers from buyers.
The effect of the wobbly Chinese economy and the potential fallout for the rest of the world is an added factor why the market for used aircraft at present is judged to be soft, coupled with the vastly improved operating cost of new state-of-the-art aircraft like the B787 or the A350 XWB. This may explain Kenya Airways opting to use a go-between for the aircraft sale and Cabot in recent months has successfully completed similar transactions for a number of other airlines.
