Kenya Airlines CEO Alan Kirabuka sees Africa as the key to a profitable career network strategy. Graham Dunn reports from Nairobi
Kenya Airlines CEO Alan Kirabuka is focusing on boosting Africa's network as an expansion of the airline's eye after the milestone returns to profits.
In 2024, Kenya Airlines restored its flights to Maputo in Mozambique, adding flights to Mogadishu, the capital of Somali, and domestic services to Eldoret. However, Kirabuka believes there is a much better chance of connecting Africa.
“We need to raise Africa. There are many gaps in Africa that we need to meet,” he said. “For example, we don't fly to Gaboron. We don't fly to Windhook in Namibia. There are so many cities that don't fly. So we need to increase our network. That's an opportunity, as we're networked airlines.”
He sees opportunities to provide better service to West Africa, Accra, Ghana. There, Kirabuka met with Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama to discuss the possibility that Kenya Airlines would establish a secondary hub. Accra is one of six points in West Africa where airlines serve, providing points with international connections as well as transportation within the region.
Kirabuka also pointed out opportunities in North Africa. “(There's) Cairo and other places we want to start flying,” he said.
Carrier operates the 190s and nine Boeing 737-800 fleets. It delivered the latest -800 from lender Dubai Aerospace Enterprises in February and has been operating nine Boeing 787-8s on the Howl route for a long time.
The latter network will expand in July with Kenya Airlines adding a second London business, which will launch three times a week from Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to Gatwick. It already offers Heathrow daily from Nairobi.
Carrier began code sharing on the Heathrow Route. It also serves Europe's Paris Charles Degaard and Amsterdam Schiphol, as well as SkyTeam partners Air France and KLM hubs.
“In Europe, we only fly to three locations, so we use our partner airline network to fly (beyond those),” Kirabuka said. He pointed out that other opportunities within Europe, especially Istanbul, is “very attractive.”
He continued: “Then we have many opportunities in Asia, especially India and China. We fly to those places, but there are opportunities in different cities too.”
Kenya Airlines currently serves not only Bangkok, Thailand's capital, in the Asia-Pacific region, but also Mumbai, Guangzhou and Guangzhou.
Kenya Airlines, which also serves Dubai and New York JFK internationally, has recently reiterated its interest in potential services to Mexico.
“There are a lot of opportunities,” Kirabuka said. “We need to deploy them very systematically so we don't overheat.”
Profit return
For many years, Kenya Airways has been a major region light through profitability, SkyTeam Alliance membership and foreign investment in the form of KLM, but has endured the severe losses and restructuring of the past decade.
Kirabuka led Kenya Airlines budget operation Jambojet five years ago before he took the group to helm the night before the pandemic. He then oversaw a successful transformation in the first stages of the Kifal restructuring programme.
This was realized last year as Kenya Airlines recorded a net profit of 5.4 billion KSHS (USD 41.5 million). It not only avoided a loss of 22.7 billion Kshs2.7 billion ($17.6 million) from 2023, but also marked the airline's first net profit for 10 years.
“That's a big milestone,” Kirabuka admitted. “To be totally honest, it's a little better than I expected. Last year we made the best profits with the company's history, the highest revenues, the highest number of passengers. It's very important.
“But we're not finished yet,” he added. “Now we have to take advantage of our business.”
Securing strategic investors was central to Kenya Airlines' long-term sustainability and was hoping to make that investment by this point under the airline's original plan. But it is still waiting for a green light from its majority shareholder, the government, to allow it to officially launch the investor process.
“In the meantime, we're doing it informally while we wait for approval,” Kirabuka said. “We have some leads that look very promising, but we can't announce them yet. We hope we can announce investors this year.”
This investment is essential to support Kenya Airlines' growth aspirations. Both will increase their fleet in the short term, offering double revenue and vision 2030 ambitions for passenger numbers by 2030.
But given the challenges airlines face in acquiring aircraft, time is essential. Supply chain issues continue to reach availability and affordability today, but amid the excesses of aircraft orders, it is difficult to ensure timely delivery dates for new aircraft.
“The plan for the next five years is for airlines to increase their fleets of nearly 34 to 60, including widebody freight aircraft. So there are concerns about the pace of capitalisation.
“We have already approved the plan by the board, but strategic investors need to validate it,” Kirabuka explained. “Then we have temporary plans for (used) aircraft starting next year. But with strategic investors, we will actually post new aircraft orders from OEMs. It's next year.
Regional role
Kirabuka was talking to Args about the bystanders of the IATA ground handling meeting in Nairobi. During the event, IATA emphasized that aviation accounts for around 3.2% of Kenya's GDP. Kilavuka estimated that Flag Carrier alone accounted for around 2.5%. “It could be bigger,” he added. “Focusing on aviation (and infrastructure growth) can contribute more to development.”
Kirabuka pointed to fragmentation of the aviation sector in the region, especially when it comes to airlines and airports. “For these two key players to work together more together, there is a lot of work to do to provide a better experience as they come and go in and out of Africa by providing the necessary infrastructure and amenities for their customers.
“We can grow faster,” he added.
“Africa is a very large continent, but there are very poor alternative infrastructure with railways and roads, so it's important to grow aviation.”
