Kenyan Airways plane in the air. [Photo/the-star.co.ke]
The struggling national carrier Kenya Airways lost a record 55 pilots last year, raising to nearly 100 the number of pilots who have exited the airline in two years.
In its latest annual report, KQ said the loss of pilots has left the carrier operating below the optimum number of pilots needed for smooth flight operations.The national carrier had 434 pilots on its books at the end of March this year, 10 below the required number.This risks creating disruptions in flights given that a number of pilots are certified to fly only certain models of aircraft, exposing the carrier to manpower shortages when they go off duty.The airline has been involved in labour disputes with its pilots in the past two years. Which has led to its suffering from poaching of talent by wealthy Middle East carriers that can afford to pay higher wages.“During the period under review, we witnessed the highest number of pilot exit in the last five years of 55 and a cumulative exit of 89 for the last two years to close at 434 pilots against a requirement of 444."A total of 32 Captains and 19 First Officers checked out across the fleets,” says KQ in its annual report.“The company plans to narrow the gap in pilot’s strength by recruiting qualified direct entry pilots from the Kenyan market.”At the end of July the pilots held a go-slow that saw them refuse to work while on their off-time, referred to as goodwill in the industry lingo, resulting in flight delays and cancellations across multiple routes.KQ says in the report, “In general, the poaching of staff by Middle Eastern airlines influenced aircraft serviceability and availability and crew shortage,” “As a preventive measure the airline has put in place a team to investigate the root causes and solutions….some of the main efforts the operations department put in place, which have started bearing fruit during the last quarter of the period under review include review of salaries for the technical staff to stem attrition.”