GOING – GOING BUT NOT YET GONE AS KENYA AIRWAYS SEEKS TO SELL B777-200’S
(Posted 30th August 2015)
Kenya Airways has put things in motion last week to sell off four Boeing B777-200’s, which were acquired from the manufacturer new between 2004 and 2007, making the planes between eleven and eight years old.
Parked outside the airline’s Embakasi headquarters for the past several months have these aircraft been replaced on long haul routes by the newer and more fuel efficient Boeing B787 Dreamliner and the larger B777-300ER. Kenya Airways presently has seven Dreamliners in service with two more due for delivery and three of the larger Boeing B777-300ER, which has a greater passenger and cargo capacity compared to the -200 and also a longer range. It is understood that Kenya Airways has contracted Cabot Aviation in the UK to sell the planes on their behalf though it is not clear if the three B777-300ER will also be sold off when the remaining Boeing B787 Dreamliners have been delivered to Nairobi or if they will remain on the fleet, now that traffic to Kenya is picking up again.
B777’s presently sell new at prices ranging between around 260 million US Dollars to around 290 million US Dollars, depending on the model type but aircraft which have been in use for over a decade, while still relatively new, will of course attract much lower offers from buyers.
The effect of the wobbly Chinese economy and the potential fallout for the rest of the world is an added factor why the market for used aircraft at present is judged to be softish, coupled with the vastly improved operating cost of more state of the art aircraft like the B787 or the A350 XWB. This may explain Kenya Airways’ opting to use a go-between for the aircraft sale and Cabot has in recent months successfully completed similar transactions for a number of other airlines. Watch this space for regular and breaking aviation news from the Eastern African region.
