Sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest airline Kenya Airways, will not cancel its orders for the Boeing 737-800 Max jets that have been grounded globally after suffering two fatal crashes in five months. This is according to the Kenya Airways chairman, Michael Joseph.
The national carrier is reportedly planning to order up to 10 of the planes worth an estimated Sh120 billion ($1.2 billion).
Mr. Joseph in an interview with Business Daily Africa said, “The only option that we have planned for is the Boeing 737-800 Max because this will make it easier for us to conduct training and maintenance of the aircraft… We hope that between now and the time when we are ready to acquire the new fleet, Boeing will have solved the current problem,”.
The US aviation giant Boeing, has been working tirelessly to fix a software problem suspected to be the cause of the two crashes that killed 157 people in the Ethiopian Airlines accident this month and 189 people in an Indonesian carrier Lion Air crash just five months ago. 36 of those killed in the Ethiopian crash were Kenyans.
Preliminary investigations have pointed to similarities in the circumstances surrounding the two crashes.
The safety concerns have put a pause on global orders for the plane worth about $ 57 billion (5.7 trillion Kenyan shillings).
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Kenya Airways (KQ) has the option of buying more of the older 737-800 version of the Boeing aircraft that does not feature the suspect software, but this could see it lose the fuel efficiency associated with the new jet.
Alternatively, the airline could switch to Airbus, but this would come with additional training costs for its pilots, crew and engineers.
While not completely ruling out the Airbus switch, the ideal situation according to Mr. Joseph, would be to have aircraft from one manufacturer to make it cheaper to maintain the fleet.
He added that having more than three types of aircraft from different manufacturers will raise training and maintenance costs.
Mr Joseph says maintaining the same fleet of Boeing jets is the most cost-efficient option for the national carrier, but that will depend on the manufacturer’s ability to fix safety concerns around the new 737-800 Max series.
The Boeing 737-800 Max jets were grounded across the world following the two air crashes.
Kenya Airways does not have the Boeing 737-800 Max on its fleet and is yet to make any firm orders. The plane has been credited for fuel efficiency and has been one of Boeing’s best-selling jets having delivered over 370 aircraft since 2017, with about 5,000 placed orders.
Kenya Airways planes at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on March 6, 2019. PHOTO | NMG
Currently Kenya Airways (KQ), has a fleet of 40 planes, being a mixture of Boeing jets and the Brazilian-made Embraer 190. The aircraft comprise 20 that the national carrier fully owns and another 20 leased from other companies.
The national carrier has leased three of the Boeing 777-300ER to Turkish Airlines while a Boeing 787 Dreamliner has been leased to Oman Air where KQ earns lease rental income from the arrangement.
The national carrier also has plans to get rid of its two Boeing 737-700 jets before the end of the year.
Changes in the Airline’s Shareholding which took effect in 2017, handed the Kenyan government an almost 50 percent ownership of KQ, with Air France-KLM Group, commercial banks and individual investors holding the other shares.
Indonesian airline Garuda Indonesia on Friday became the first carrier to publicly announce the cancellation of its Sh600 billion ($6 billion) order for 49 Boeing 737 Max 8 jets, citing a loss of passenger trust following the two crashes.
