Kenya Airways (KQ) is set to ditch its Embraer and Bombardier jets in favour of Boeing planes. The national carrier says that this move is aimed at adopting the mono fleeting strategy for cost containment.
“The board has approved that we move towards the Boeing aircraft. This is, however, going to happen progressively and not in one shot because we don’t want to overheat,” chief executive officer Allan Kilavuka said.
KQ’s fleet ownership costs stood at Sh17.6 billion in the year ended December 2022 from Sh. 16.6 billion in 2021 but were lower than the Sh. 28.6 billion posted at the end of 2020.
According to Kilavuka, the new mono fleeting strategy is expected to keep a tight control on the carrier’s fleet operational maintenance and training costs on crew and engineers.
“Mono fleeting simplifies our fleet and brings more commonality to the type of airline that you fly. This helps with training and planning and reduces costs in terms of the crew you need and spare parts costs,” said Kilavuka.
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As of 2022, Kenya Airways operated 39 aircraft, both owned and leased, including nine Boeing 787 wide-body planes.
The national carrier also operated eight Boeing 737 narrow-body planes, 13 Embraer regional planes, two Boeing 737 cargo planes, and seven Bombardier Dash 8-400 planes. KQ has so far disclosed the exit of two Boeing B737-700 and two Embraer E190 planes.
