For the first time since 2017, one of Africa’s largest airlines, Kenya Airways, made an operating profit last year, Africa Today News, New York has gathered.
The Chairman of the airline, Michael Joseph described the $80m (£63m) excess a “significant milestone”.
Part of the reason for the success was a more than 50% jump in revenue thanks to an increase in passenger numbers.
Africa Today News, New York reports that Kenya Airways, which is partly owned by the government, has had troubled in the recent past with huge debts and it was hit hard by the fallout from the Covid pandemic.
“These figures highlight the airline’s remarkable performance over the year and provide encouraging signs of continued recovery within the air transportation sector,” Mr Joseph said in a statement
The revenue growth was underpinned by a 35% increase in passenger numbers, he said, adding that it will increase flights on popular routes such as Nairobi to London and secure new planes to take advantage of that momentum in demand.
The airline expects to receive an additional cargo freighter soon and it will receive another Boeing 737-800 passenger jet by the third quarter of this year to boost capacity, Kilavuka said.
Revenue from the airline’s cargo business was down for the year, in line with the global trend, he said.
Kenya Airways posted a pretax loss, however, as a steep weakening of the Kenyan shilling led to loan revaluation losses.
The shilling has started to strengthen against the dollar, meaning the outlook for this year is more positive, Kilavuka said.
“The FX situation is improving … We do expect this will work in our favour this year,” he said, adding that it would help the company to attain bottom line profitability.
