Project Kifaru is Kenya Airways’ post-pandemic strategic recovery plan. It is the antidote to KQ’s problems past and present and executable in two phases. The first phase of Project Kifaru has concentrated on the stabilisation of the business, particularly after the Covid-19 turbulence.
Stabilisation is in three principal areas — operational efficiency, customer excellence and people development.
Operational efficiency includes fleet and route optimisation and improvement in on-time performance (OTP). Our current OTP since the beginning of the year, which is the industry measurement of an airline’s reliability on departures and arrivals at the end of September 2023 is 77 percent.
In September 2023, which is a high season our OTP was 86 percent way above the industry average of 80 percent. We are confident that by the end of the year, we shall have attained our internal target of 80 percent OTP.
Delays are costly for airlines and comprise several components including the cost of rebooking, compensation, and care for passengers as well as crew and maintenance costs.
Delays create other problems including missed connections, lost bags, and managing tempers among frustrated travellers.
While the airline cannot avoid delays entirely, minimising their magnitude through improved operational efficiencies saves the company money and enhances the customer experience.
Customer excellence is the focused engagement we are putting on the entire customer journey right from booking to the next time customers think of travelling. A few key examples include a revamped website that makes booking a breeze and a customer query escalation system.
A redone meal service on board has been tweaked to incorporate local flavours whilst still maintaining internationally accepted gourmet standards.
To top it all, we now have our very own frequent flyer system called Asante Rewards, which is a unique and superior loyalty programme that focuses on our specific customer needs.
At KQ, we recognise that content employees translate to satisfied customers. We kept our promise and recalled most of the employees who were previously disengaged on account of Covid-19.
We have also enhanced our in-house and other training to bring them up to par with industry best practices.
Employees are assured of a career path and a great future with Kenya Airways. We are doing everything within our power to make KQ the best company to work for.
It is these efforts that have turned the business to operating profitability. The next phase of Kifaru is equally exciting. It was critical to strengthen our balance sheet by retiring the legacy debt that has precluded us from net profitability.
We must recapitalise the business for this reason and prepare ourselves for the growth we are planning in the coming years.
The airline plans to increase its footprint in Africa and beyond. Capitalisation will also enable us to invest in technology and artificial intelligence to maintain a leading edge in innovation. This is in line with our digitalisation strategy.
Because we believe we now have an optimised fleet, we now need to grow. Africa is the next growth market for aviation with an expected growth to 300 million travellers by 2040 up from 134 million today.
Everybody is eyeing this market and so are we. We will expand our network and increase our frequencies on a strong balance sheet. We will also grow inorganically through partnerships like the one with SAA. And there is more to come.
With all these actions and the continued focus on Project Kifaru, we are confident that we will return to bottom-line profitability by 2024. But more important is the fact that we will continue playing our key role in spurring Africa’s prosperity by connecting people, cultures and markets.
That is why we are very excited about our journey!
Allan Kilavuka is Group Managing Director & CEO at Kenya Airways.
