Kenya Airways redeploys second Embraer plane after repair to meet festive season demand

Kenya Airways flight at JKIA. [Wilberforce Okwiri, Standard]

Kenya Airways has redeployed another plane among six that had been grounded for the past six months due to spare parts availability challenge.

The Embraer ERJ-190s plane, which flew today morning to Mombasa, has a passenger capacity of …and will serve its busy local and regional routes at four to six hours to meet rising travel demand during the festive season.

The planes have a capacity of carrying 241 passengers with 96 business and 145 in the economy class.

Speaking during a press conference at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) today (Wednesday), Capt George Kama, Kenya Airways acting managing director said the plane is the second after the first was redeployed last week.

“We had the first one launched on December 18 and this is the second plane to come out," said Capt Kamal.

He added: “And as we promised the government that we will have three aircrafts redeployed before the end of the year, the third one will be coming soon before this year ends,” said Capt Kamal.

The acting MD said they had six grounded aircrafts and reiterated his commitment to ensure that another two to three are repaired to fly.

“We are waiting for engines to land here. However, we will do everything we can to open some other avenue to support the technical team, which is working 24 hours and seven days a week to bring those aircrafts back to work,” he added.

Capt Kamal said availability of some spares has been the issues and now they have opened a local market for spares parts through a pool strategy.

"Now we have opened an avenue for secondary market by creating a pool so that aircrafts work together to ensure there is availability of the parts that are not available at the Original Equipment Manufacturer(OEM) directly and that is what has worked in the two we have redeployed," he said.

He said next year, they plan to procure six more aircrafts including one wide and another five narrow bodies in fleet expansion bid.

Simon Njoroge, who represented Kenya Airport Authority(KAA) acting managing director Dr. Mohamud Gedi, welcomed the redeployment of the plane, saying it marked an important milestone towards the modernisation and expansion of the JKIA.

“We as KAA are very keen to support our national carrier. We remain ready and steadfast in enhancing the customer experience in our airport and we feel this step will make JKIA even more important both in the global stage and regional arena,” said Njoroge.

He added: “We believe that in partnership with KQ, we have an incredible opportunity now to demonstrate the strength and resilience of the aviation system in our country.”

Terry Mbaika, Principal Secretary for Aviation and Aerospace Development lauded Capt Kamal and his team for his efforts to repair the six aircrafts.

“Having six aircrafts grounded is something you can really not underestimate looking at the importance of this sector and especially during this festive season where we have so many travellers to different places,” said Ms Mbaika.

The PS said having all the six planes working will mean connecting people, lift cargo and grow the economy.

She expressed government’s commitment, working with other partners to ensure the aviation sector thrives, expand fleet and increase routes.

“We are looking forward to have more of these(planes) in air to ensure that our customers, travelers are well facilitated with top-notch experience and make KQ a leader in the region and later globally even as it keeps the country proud and grow the sector,” said PS Mbaika.

On airport expansion, she said its time to do it considering 2023-2024, it accommodated passengers 8.4 million instead of the 7.5 million it’s supposed to carry and when time is ready, the government will communicate on the plans they have.

"We are looking forward to make sure that we succeed on this and also make sure that our infrastructure is upto date. Aviation is a global sector and if we are not upto standard, we are going to lose our competitive advantage as an airport," she added.

The High Court last year September blocked a proposed deal for India's Adani Group to lease the country's main airport for 30 years in exchange for expanding it.

This is after the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), Kenya Human Rights Commission(KHRC) told the court on Monday that the country could independently raise the USD1.85 billion (Sh238.4) required to upgrade the airport.

Part of the plan was to construct a new passenger terminal (T3) alongside a second runway and existing terminal refurbishments.