A woman awaits her flight at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya.

Kenya Airways – Connecting the Continent

Kenya Airways is providing a service that no other African airline has been able to manage so far. It is connecting the continent for the first time…Africans reaching Africans.

Those moments of transit are so important, marking beginnings endings, hopes and dreams.

The airline was established in February 1977, after the break-up of the East African Community and the consequent demise of East African Airways and was wholly owned by the Kenyan government until April 1996. In 1986, Sessional Paper Number 1 was published by Kenya’s government, outlining the country’s need for economic development and growth. The document stressed the government opinion that the airline would be better off if owned by private interests, thus resulting in the first attempt to privatise the airline. The government named Mr Philip Ndegwa as Chairman of the Board in 1991, with specific orders to privatise the airline. He heads a renewed company cabinet. In 1992, the Public Enterprise Reform paper was published, giving Kenya Airways priority among national companies in Kenya to be privatized.

In the fiscal year 1993 to 1994, the airline produced its first profit since the start of commercialization. Also, in 1994, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), was appointed to provide assistance in the privatization process. In 1995, Kenya Airways restructured its debts and a made a master corporation agreement with KLM that bought 26% of the shares in Kenya Airways and became the largest single shareholder. In 1996, shares were floated to the public, and the airline started trading on the Nairobi Stock Exchange. In October 2004, the company cross-listed its shares at the Dar-es-Salaam Stock Exchange. In April 2004, the company re-introduced Kenya Airways Cargo as a brand and in July 2004, the company’s domestic subsidiary Flamingo Airlines was re-absorbed.

In 2005, Kenya Airways changed its livery. The four stripes running the length of the fuselage were replaced by the slogan “Pride of Africa”. The KA tail logo was replaced by a styled “K” encircled with a “Q” to evoke the “KQ” call letters for the airline. In the 6 months ending 30 September 2005, profits after tax rose 48% vs 2004-5 to Kshs 2.231 Billion (US$30 Million) and over 1.2 million passengers were carried.

In the 6 months ending 30 September 2004, profit after tax was $19.5 million, compared to $4.5 million for the same period the previous year. This has been attributed to KTAP (Kenya Airways TurnAround Project) overhauling the airline’s revenue management, cost structures and route and fleet planning. In the full-year results ending 31 March 2005, profits after tax almost tripled over 2003-4 to Kshs 3.882 Billion (US$50 Million) and over 2 million passengers were carried.

Kenya Airways announced record profit growth for 2005-06. After-tax profits increased from 3.88 billion Kenya shillings (about $54 million USD) to 4.83 billion shillings.

In March 2006, Kenya Airways won the ‘African Airline of the Year’ Award for 2005, for the fifth time in seven years.

Passenger numbers in the fiscal year 2006 (April 2006 – March 2007) were a record 2.6 million.

On September 4, 2007, SkyTeam, the second-largest airline alliance in the world, welcomed Kenya Airways as one of the first official SkyTeam Associate Airlines.

The airline is owned by individual Kenyan shareholders (30.94%), KLM (now Air France-KLM) (26%), Kenyan government (23%), Kenyan institutional investors (14.2%), foreign institutional investors (4.47%) and individual foreign investors (1.39%). It has 2,408 employees (at March 2007). Kenya Airways also owns 49% of Precision Air in Tanzania.

Source: Wikipedia