Kenya’s flagship carrier, Kenya Airways on Tuesday disclosed it has posted a loss of 7 billion shillings ($69 million) for the year that ended on December 2018.
The national carrier cited fuel costs, which rose 73.6 percent to 33 billion shillings ($326 million).
“Fuel is our greatest challenge and this will be for a while, oil prices are up by 30%. Fuel represents over 40% of our direct operating costs,” the airlines group chairman, Michael Joseph told a press conference in Nairobi.
“We started mitigating this risk by implementing a new hedging policy with minimal risk. Kenya Airways offers other services, technical and ground handling to domestic, regional and international customers,” he added.
Michael Joseph was however optimistic saying that the company has improved by almost 20 percent net performance.
“Whilst the company might still be struggling, we are still moving in the right direction. Growth remains our focus, we’re back to flying to Rome, and have added a new route to Geneva,” he added.
He disclosed the company is keen to make an investment in digital distribution as well as improve on productivity to grow the agency’s revenue.
JK/as/APA