‘Operation Pride’ signals turnaround at Kenya Airways

The impact of ‘Operation Pride’, Kenya Airways’ measures to accomplish financial turnaround instituted over a year ago, is now becoming more apparent, when news emerged from Nairobi that the H1 figures of the airline showed an operational profit, the first in a while.

Downsizing the fleet went alongside cost cutting across the board and included a major refinancing initiative to reduce short and medium term debt with loans offering better terms.

Staff reductions were also part of the measures the company’s board of directors approved and after some 80 staff left the airline from mid 2016 are now another 38 not seeing their contracts renewed or their services made redundant.

A media release from Kenya Airways earlier today affirmed that the staff reduction measures met all required labour law regulations and was in line with the airline’s collective bargaining agreements with the respective unions.

Codeshare deals, more recently signed with Hong Kong Airlines and prior to that with Jet Airways of India, has seen the reach of Kenya Airways expand into the Chinese and Indian market places without having to add more flights of their own by capitalizing on existing routes and adding routes beyond such points like Mumbai, Bangkok and Hong Kong.