Kenya’s flag carrier, Kenya Airways has reported a net loss of Ksh 17.2 billion for the year ended December 2025 owing to supply chain disruptions which cost the airline capacity and revenue.
KQ says despite strong demand for passengers, the airline had insufficient number of operating aircrafts which led to saw passenger revenue decline by 18pc while cargo volume also shrunk by 8pc during the year under review.
“This is a year defined not by weak demand but by global constraints. The temporary grounding of part of our wide body fleet due to industry wide engine and spare parts shortages significantly reduced our capacity. In a nutshell we had customers ready to travel but fewer aircrafts were available to serve them,” said Kiprono Kittony, KQ Chairman.
As a result of operational challenges, the airline says revenue declined by 14pc to close the year with a turnover of Ksh 161.5 billion compared to Ksh 188.5 billion reported during the previous year.
During the year under review, KQ operated at 80pc capacity due to the grounding of aircrafts. This saw passenger revenue decline by 18pc as passenger number dipped 13pc and cargo volume by 8pc.
The grounded aircrafts also eased KQs operational expenses which reduced to Ksh 179.4 billion from Ksh 183 billion.
“We had a number of fleet grounded especially our wide body aircrafts and these are the money makers in the industry. If you look at the year that was, even with all the constraints that we had, we still had much better performance,” said Mary Mwenga, KQ Chief Finance Officer.
According to Kenya Airways the grounding of the aircrafts was due to overhaul cost of General Electric engines, GEnx used for its widebody aircrafts estimated at Ksh 1.9 billion and which now takes between 90 and 120 days from the previous 60 days. A new GEnx engine also cost Ksh 5.2 billion each while a new Dreamliner cost Ksh 32 billion.
The airline also noted that the demand for original equipment spare parts also rose by up to 20pc with delivery time also rising by 20pc.
“We need to stabilize by having accelerated Aircraft On Ground (AOG) to come up flying. So we have two engines coming in the month of April for the 787s, we have another two engines, one is coming in May and another in June to deliver the second 787 so we can go the high season with maximum capacity possible,” added George Kamal, KQ Acting Chief Executive Officer.
The airline which closed the year with a negative equity of Ksh 132.1 billion is now seeking additional short term and long term liquidity injection from strategic investors and structural financing to stabilize the carrier and return to profitability.
