Kenya Airways has announced plans to raise at least $500 million in fresh capital to expand and improve its fleet, with the process expected to be finalized by the first quarter of next year.
The airline disclosed the move on Tuesday after reporting a pretax loss for the first half of 2025.
The carrier, one of Africa’s three largest airlines, posted a pretax loss of 12.17 billion shillings ($94.34 million) for the period, compared with a profit of 634 million shillings in the same period last year.
The decline was attributed to reduced revenue and passenger numbers after three of its Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners were grounded for maintenance, Reuters reported.
Chief Executive Officer Allan Kilavuka told an investor briefing that one of the aircraft resumed service in July and confirmed the airline was working to have its full fleet operational by next year.
He explained that the company intends to identify the source of the additional capital and secure shareholder approval within the first three months of 2026.
“We’ve said the minimum that we are gunning for is about half a billion dollars, which we believe (is) a minimum. That will address the fleet expansions that we’re looking (for),” Kilavuka said.
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The profit recorded in the first half of 2024 marked the airline’s first in more than a decade.
However, Tuesday’s results showed an operating loss of 6.2 billion shillings for the first half of 2025, compared with an operating profit of 1.3 billion shillings during the same period last year.
Revenue also dropped to 74.5 billion shillings from 91.5 billion shillings a year earlier.
Kenya Airways has a history of financial challenges, having entered insolvency in 2018 after an ambitious expansion drive left it saddled with debts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Since then, it has relied heavily on state financial support. In January this year, the government stepped in to repay a $150 million loan the airline had taken from local commercial banks.
According to Reuters, the company ended 2024 with a full-year pretax profit of 5.53 billion shillings, a sharp turnaround from a loss of 22.86 billion shillings the previous year.
A major contributor to that performance was foreign-exchange gains of 10.55 billion shillings, compared with a loss of 15.04 billion shillings in 2023, as the local currency strengthened by more than 20 percent against the dollar during the year.
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Image Credit: Kurunzi News
