KENYA (Commonwealth Union) – There has been some talk of Kenya Airways changing hands but nothing has been set in stone. This came about when there was a clear indication that there was not a lot of profit to be seen by running the carrier as it were.
It was none other than Treasury Principal Secretary nominee Chris Kiptoo who stated to the finance ministry as well as the treasury that something had to be done about the national carrier not making the revenue it used to make. He took into account the time of the pandemic and stated that the numbers were calculated after traveling came back to almost normalcy. This means that the airline numbers were low even late into 2021 and well into 2022.
Kiptoo has made it clear that by this time the travel and tourism industry had come back to almost normal and the airline should have been turning in a profit by this time. He has further stated that there is a foreign investor ready to buy the airline and it should be something that should be considered seriously.
When the finance reports for the airline came through it showed that Kenyan Airways under current management was not doing too well. It showed that the airline had made a loss of almost 10 billion dollars just in the first half of 2022. This was disappointing as there should have been a profit.
Kiptoo further explains that the country cannot afford losses like this. It would benefit the country greatly if they were to approve this sale to a foreign investor and let the foreign investor make profit.
The airline is in a huge amount of debt and by selling the controlling stake of the airline to the foreign investor there is another party pumping in the money to get the airline to better standards. This will help the airline to grow and add more routes to its existing roster, which means there will be more money coming in.
