National carrier Kenya Airways (KQ) has issued a profit warning for its full year earnings. The airline has blamed the anticipated dip in earnings on low passenger numbers following the grounding of two of its Boeing wide body planes.
“The [Kenya Airways Board of Directors] brings to the attention of the public that the earnings for the current financial year 2025 are expected to be lower by at least 25 percent than the earnings reported for the same period in full year 2024,” Kenya Airways said in a statement.
The profit warning follows a half year loss that the carrier posted for the period ended June 30, 2025. In that period, Kenya Airways made a net loss of Sh12.15 billion.
The national carrier’s loss in the six months was a sharp about turn from the record profit of Sh5.4 billion that the national carrier posted in the full year 2024, and the net profit of Sh513 million in the first six months of 2024.
In the first half of this year, the total income for the national carrier dropped by 18.6 percent to Sh74.5 billion. Operating loss came in at Sh6.2 billion from the Sh1.3 billion that was reported in the first half of 2024.
At the same time, cash and equivalents went red by 10.8 percent to Sh4.2 billion while net cash from operations were red by 2.6 percent to Sh7.7 billion. Assets increased 0.7 percent to Sh180.4 billion.
Kenya Airways blamed the loss on its grounded aircraft. According to Kenya Airways chief executive officer Allan Kilavuka, 33 percent of the carrier’s wide-body aircraft was grounded for the first six months of this year. The grounding of the aircraft resulted in a 14 percent drop in passenger numbers and a 19 percent drop in Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKs).
“The board and management remain committed to recovery efforts, including returning grounded aircraft to service, cost reduction and executing partnerships and capital raising initiatives aimed at stabilizing operations and improving the company’s financial performance,” the statement by the national carrier further added.
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