Kenya Airways has issues to fix

At 4:30pm on Monday, I obediently reported to the Kigali International Airport to check in for my flight to Nairobi which was scheduled to depart at 6:50pm that evening but I and dozens of other travelers were in for a long night courtesy of Kenya Airways’ increasing unreliable flight schedules. Flight KQ444 which normally flies from Nairobi to Kigali via Bujumbura and then back to Nairobi, is according to its regular users increasingly becoming unreliable especially on time keeping, something that could cost the Airline its generally good reputation. When I am paying my own bills, RwandAir is usually my preferred choice especially when travelling within the region but the organizers of the three-day event I was going to attend in Nairobi had decided that I would fly with KQ on this occasion. By 5pm, the flight had not arrived and by 6pm, just ten minutes to departure, an airline official showed up to apologize that the aircraft had failed to make the 25 minute high-jump from Bujumbura to Kigali due to mechanical conditions. “Your flight will be delayed. We regret any inconveniences caused,” she said. Meanwhile, we were told to wait as ‘everything was being done.’ By 8pm nothing was forthcoming. By 9pm, people started cursing under their breath as a female airline official tried hard to keep the travelers calm. In the end, the flight never happened. Four elderly British travelers looked worried as the development meant they would miss their connecting flight to London; another traveler, a youthful man from Eastern Europe visibly expressed his anger. “This kind of thing is common with African flights,” he grumbled. Personally, I was overwrought. My planning was ruined. Initially, I had calculated that I would reach Nairobi at 9pm and work on some pending articles. “The next flight will be at 3am; we have another flight at 9am, please let us know and we adjust for you,” a KQ official told us. It was a quarter to 11pm. Many chose to wait for the next flight at 3am. I chose to return home and try to finish my pending work and catch the 9am flight to Nairobi. My thinking was, since it’s slightly over an hour’s flight from Kigali to Nairobi, I would be in time for the opening presentations of the two day training for journalists that I was to attend. By 5am, I was awake. By 7:30pm I was in the cab to the Airport, I had been checked in last night. It was 8:00am, time to start boarding. The aircraft KQ448 was nowhere to be seen. By 9:00am, the scheduled time for departing, we were told the flight would be delayed and departure had been rescheduled to 10:00am. We waited. An hour later, the craft was nowhere to be seen. It wasn’t until almost 11am that we were finally told the aircraft had landed. This was the second or third time I was suffering delays on a KQ flight. I think it’s high time I lamented, hence this article. Many of my friends have similar experiences with Kenya Airways. One thing I like about the northern corridor integration projects initiative that is being jointly implemented by Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan is that countries considered and realised their limitations and decided that the only way to achieve more is by working together. None of the partners for instance could individually bankroll the ambitious standard gauge railway project so they have decided to work together to source funding. Unfortunately, when it comes to Airlines, we still seem to be flying on ego. But running an airline is a very expensive undertaking and from what I am told, KQ has been making losses in the past couple of years. Albeit that, KQ remains East Africa’s most established airline; the rest of the countries have tried and failed to establish and maintain national airlines. From Tanzania to Uganda, the second and third largest economies in the region, respectively, they have failed to run successful airlines; Uganda gave up. I was in Burundi the other day and for the first time; I saw a Burundi Airways’ plane, three old aircrafts that were parked in the yard, grounded. Rwanda is making history, gradually rebuilding RwandAir into a formidable and reliable airline and recent certifications from the international regulators shows that we have very good potential. But what if we merged all these efforts and established an East African Airlines? Kenya would have majority shares in the venture and the other countries’ stake would be computed based on the worth of their current national carriers. This would make us stronger and more competitive in the region and beyond. It would also reduce on the cost of operations as well as boost revenues.

Opinions

Kenya Airways has issues to fix