Struggling local airline Kenya Airways (KQ) has named Allan Kilavuka, the Chief Executive of its subsidiary Jambojet, as its acting CEO.
The announcement was made via a letter addressed to Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) boss Geoffrey Odundo and it will see Mr. Kilavuka take over from outgoing KQ boss Sebastian Mikosz. The letter similarly indicated that Mr. Kilavuka will continue to serve as Jambojet CEO in addition to leading the national carrier.
“The board of Kenya Airways Plc wishes to announce that effective January 1, 2020, Allan Kilavuka…has been appointed to take on the role of acting Chief Executive Officer of Kenya Airways until a substantive CEO for Kenya Airways has been recruited and appointed,” the airline said in the letter on Monday.
In May this year, Mr. Mikosz announced that he would terminate his contract with the airline prematurely in December this year despite his initial contract expiring in June 2020. Mr. Mikosz included in the announcement that he would be leaving the airline for personal reasons.
‘It is my personal decision and I have obviously discussed it with board as well as with my family,’ a memo sent to KQ employees informing them about Mr. Mikosz’s departure from the company said then.
Critiques have however maintained the stance that the outgoing KQ CEO had run out of options to turn around the troubled airline. In the first six months of 2019, KQ posted a Ksh8.5 billion loss in its half year earnings, which it attributed to both operational costs and elevated impairment losses.
This is approximately Ksh. 4.6 billion more than the loss it incurred in a similar period last year which stood at Ksh. 3.992 billion translating to a 112 percent increase in losses. The airline’s operating costs rose to Ksh.61.45 billion, from Ksh53.22 billion in the same period last year partly due to two Boeing 787 planes that had been sub-leased to Oman Air being returned during the first half of the year.
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