Only about 25 planes are currently operational, with at least nine grounded for maintenance A decade ago, Kenya Airways had too many planes and too little money. Today, the national carrier faces the opposite problem, strong demand, but not enough aircrafts. It is a striking reversal for an airline whose biggest crisis once came from expanding too fast.
An ambitious fleet expansion left Kenya Airways weighed down by debt, soaring costs and mounting losses. A decade later, the carrier is struggling with grounded aircraft, spare-parts shortages and limited capacity, just as passenger demand is picking up. However, the shortage has been attributed to global shortages that have seen turnaround time for spare parts hit 90 days.
The irony tells the story of a turbulent decade better than any balance sheet. Between the two extremes, the airline has gone through a revolving door of turnaround strategies, from Project Mawingu and Operation Pride to Project Safari and Operation Kifaru, each promising to restore the Pride of Africa to financial stability.
Yet as Kenya Airways enters another chapter, its challenge has changed. The question is no longer simply how to shrink the airline and stop the losses, but how to put enough aircraft back in the sky to take advantage of the passengers waiting to fly. The national carrier has passengers ready to fly, lucrative routes and an established network linking Kenya to Africa, Europe, Asia and the United States, routes recording load factors above 90 per cent.
Yet the Pride of Africa is losing money again. After posting its first full-year profit in more than a decade in 2024, In the first six months of 2026, the losses deepened from Sh12.1 billion to Sh16.1 billion.