KENYA AIRWAYS DUE TO BRIEF INVESTORS ON THURSDAY
(Posted 29th July 2015)
The eyes of shareholders, aviation pundits and financial market analysts will be on Kenya Airways on Thursday when the airline’s top management will brief investors on the upcoming annual results for the 2014/15 financial year.
This will be the first year that Mbuvi Ngunze will be at the helm when results are announced, after he took over from his predecessor Dr. Titus Naikuni in October last year.
It turned out to be a turbulent year for the new CEO who had previously served as Chief Operating Officer before being selected by the Board of Directors to succeed Naikuni. One of Ngunze’s first actions was to appoint a financial advisor tasked to present options to reschedule the current debt. Among other measures taken were the intended purchases of several Boeing B787 Dreamliners’ turned into operating leases instead of the planned outright purchases while several of the airline’s older B777-200’s were mothballed with the newly arrived B787’s taking over their routes due to lower operating costs.
It is generally expected that the airline will once again write a deep red bottom line, but lower fuel cost and anticipated rising demand for Kenya, together with the resumption of profitable West Africa routes which were halted during the height of the Ebola hysteria, are likely to return Kenya Airways into break even territory during the current financial year, as long as Kenya’s notorious unions are not once again trying to shake the airline down as repeatedly done in the past.
On the upside has the arrival of several more B787’s and B737-800NG’s impacted positively on the public’s perception about the airline’s fleet. Newly introduced menus on board won acclaim as did the airline’s two new lounges in their new home, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport’s Terminal 1A. Both Simba and Pride lounges are offering new passenger comfort levels and are conveniently located for departing passengers. The move from the former overcrowded Unit 2, now renamed as Terminal 1B, to the new Terminal 1A provided lots of extra space and reduced congestion, a major cause of complaints in the past. Notably was Kenya Airways also recognized for Africa’s Best Business Class for the third year running a few weeks ago relegating other African airline heavyweights into the runner up positions once again. Details on the investor briefing will be appearing on Kenya Airways’ twitter handle via @KenyaAirways on Thursday morning, East African time which is GMT +3
2 Responses
Not sure what you mean by “notorious unions”. All unions do is to fight for their rights. If management are fair and willing to talk the issue of unions does not arise. There are many companies in kenya where you never hear of union activities although there all have strong unions. This is due to the fact that those company leaders are able to simply sit down and talk . Unlike in kenya airways. This is why kenya airways is now the subject of a parliamentary probe.
Kenya Airways is subject to a hate and demontage campaign and some
union leaders are the fifth column, wittingly or unwittingly, of
competitors and entities with a vested interest. Yes, those unions
are notoriously rabid while, and there I agree, some other union
leaders are seeking viable compromises and work with managements
of their respective trades, unlike the unions working against KQ.