Kenya Airways’ Chief Operating Officer, Jan De Vegt, has resigned from his position after serving for three years.
Jan De Vegt announced his resignation via twitter saying, “Kenya Airways decided to stop all support by KLM. For this reason, I am returning to Amsterdam. I very much appreciated your feedback and our discussions on this medium. Thanks for that! As there will be no COO in KQ from now on, I will close this account. Until we meet again!”
Kenya Airways will now run without a Chief Operating Officer until a replacement for Jan De Vegt is found.
According to the Kenyan Wallstreet, Kenya Airways decided to stop all support from its Dutch partner KLM.
As a result of this, the five KLM staff members who worked at Kenya Airways, all intend to return to the Netherlands.
Jan De Vegt however, made it clear that the joint venture between Kenya Airways and KLM remains.
Kenya Airways has seen some of its top management staff leave including the Chief Executive Officer, who tendered his resignation in May 2019.
Jan De Vegt was appointed to the position of Chief Operating Officer in August 2016, to replace Yves Guibert who served in the role for less than two years.
Observers fear Jan De Vegt’s abrupt departure from Kenya Airways, indicates a strained relationship between the Kenyan Airline and its Dutch partner KLM where Jan previously worked.
Kenya Airways entered a joint venture with KLM in 1995 when the European airline bought a 26 per cent stake in Kenya Airways.
After a restructuring process in 2017, KLM’s ownership in the Kenyan firm declined by half, to 13 percent.
At the start of 2018 however, the two carriers signed an agreement to partner in their flights to Europe and from East Africa.
