Kenya’s flag carrier plans to retire its Embraer and Bombardier fleet in favor of Boeing aircraft because it looks to include “mono fleeting.” This cost management strategy will likely be implemented in keeping with the airline’s long-term fleet and route development plans.
Up to now, Kenya Airways (KQ) has disclosed plans to phase out its Embraer Regional Jets and Bombardier aircraft to extend capability and meet passenger demand. It’s progressively moving towards becoming an all-Boeing operator, which the board has approved.
Mono fleeting
Fleet commonality generally is a game changer for KQ. By operating aircraft that share common parts, and other characteristics, the airline will gain more control of its training and planning while reducing operating and maintenance costs.
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Although airlines rarely disclose how much they pay OEMs for aircraft acquisition, they get significant discounts when making large orders. Mono fleeting can even help KQ to receive bulk discounts when purchasing recent aircraft. Kenya Airways Group Managing Director and CEO Allan Kilavuka said;
“What mono fleeting does is to simplify our fleet and produce more commonality to the style of aircraft that we fly. It helps particularly with our training and planning and reduces costs due to style of crew that we’d like, spare parts, financing and bulk discounts we will get.”
Increasing narrowbody capability
Kenya Airways’ mono fleeting strategy is a component of the plan to extend its narrowbody capability. In response to ch-aviation’s fleet database, the airline currently has a fleet of 21 narrowbody aircraft, including 13 Embraer 190s.
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KQ is seeking to phase out this fleet of regional jets as they aren’t providing the airline with enough capability. The board has already approved the choice to streamline its fleet and acquire recent Boeing jets, but it would not be implemented immediately. Allan Kilavuka added;
“We also need to increase the capability of our narrowbody fleet as the present Embraer fleet that we’ve got is just too small. We are inclined to have payload issues; in other words, we cannot carry all the baggage that we’d like, so we would like to extend the dimensions over a time period. That is why we’re going for the mono fleeting strategy.”
Taking a look at the airline’s last annual report, in 2022, the group operated a fleet of 39 owned and leased aircraft. The fleet consisted of nine Boeing 787-8s, eight B737-800s, 13 ERJs, two B737-300Fs, and 7 Bombardier Dash 8-400s. The fleet had been reviewed to be certain that it was fit to serve the network growth.
Sights on recovery
At its forty seventh AGM, Kenya Airways set its sights on business recovery by 2024 after seeing a rise in revenue and passenger numbers throughout 2022. While it still feels the long-lasting effects of the pandemic, the group predicts a robust recovery as global traffic increases and the industry continues to achieve momentum.
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The carrier’s turnaround strategy continues to be heading in the right direction, and the restructuring efforts led to a 66% revenue increase in local currency, a remarkable 68% increase in passenger numbers, and a 3.5% increase in cargo tonnage. Allan Kilavuka said on the AGM;
“Kenya Airways remained resilient by profiting from the upsurge in travel demand through frequency increment and improved service offering. Despite some headwinds with fuel cost increasing year-on-year by 160%, and the dollar deterioration that impacted our direct operating costs, we’re confident that with the restructuring initiatives introduced in 2022, the airline is poised for fulfillment and can attain its aspiration to show around by 2024.”
The group is committed to constructing a sturdy, reliable, and sustainable airline. Kenya Airways will phase out older aircraft to operate a more modern and fuel-efficient fleet as a part of its sustainable fleet development strategy.
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