Repairs Before Replacements: Kenya Airways to Spend KSh 45.15B on Ageing JetsRepairs Before Replacements: Kenya Airways to Spend KSh 45.15B on Ageing Jets

The national carrier, Kenya Airways says the shareholder financing approved by Cabinet last week will go to repairs and maintenance of old aircraft, The Standard reported on 13 October. Senior managers, former executives and aviation experts quoted by the paper warn that the plan risks repeating the failed bailouts of other state-owned airlines.

The report is paywalled beyond its opening paragraphs. The number of grounded aircraft, the cost of each repair and the timeline have not been made public in the reporting reviewed by Mwenendo, and the critics are not named in the portion available.

How the figure compares with the Cabinet approval

As Mwenendo earlier reported, Cabinet cleared KSh 45.40 billion for the airline on 9 October. That report put the approval at $350M and said the money would be released in stages over as long as 10 years, with the option to convert it into shares if approvals come.

It also noted a separate KSh 122B ($940.7M) in old government loans that may become a tradable instrument. The Standard gives the shilling figure as KSh 45.15B, and the small difference may reflect the exchange rate used.

A loss-making airline with an ageing fleet

The financing arrives as the airline's finances weaken. Mwenendo earlier reported on how the first-half loss widened to KSh 15.92B ($122.8M) before tax, from KSh 12.17B ($93.8M) a year earlier.

In an earlier report by Mwenendo, a decade of capital infusions was traced through efforts to address foreign debt, aircraft leases and operational stability at the carrier.

Spending on repairs can return idle aircraft to service without waiting for new deliveries, but it keeps the airline reliant on its existing fleet. That trade-off is what the critics cited by The Standard are pressing on.

The Treasury, which owns 48.9% of the airline, is expected to monitor the drawdowns. What readers should watch for is the published repair budget, the number of aircraft returned to service and whether the loss narrows once they fly again.