Kenya Airways returned to financial losses in 2025, the airline reported on March 24, 2026.
The Kenyan flag carrier, which posted a pre-tax loss of Ks 17.93 billion (US$138.3 million approximately), attributed this outcome to the continued grounding of a third of its long-haul fleet. This circumstance has resulted in an 18% drop in available capacity in terms of Available Seat Kilometers (ASKs), as well as 13% fewer passengers and 14% less revenue in 2025. Cargo volume, an important contributor to the airline’s coffers, also fell by 8%.
At the root of this problem is the increased lead times to perform maintenance of the GE Aerospace GEnx-1B engines that power Kenya Airways Dreamliner fleet, due mostly to supply chain constraints. This problem has forced the airline to ground three of its nine Boeing 787-8 aircraft for prolonged periods of time during 2025, with the consequent loss of revenue on some of its most valuable international routes.
The 2025 results represent a bit of a blow for an airline that had just recently managed to pull itself out of a rather long period of financial distress.
Following a period of restructuring, Kenya Airways had returned to profitability in 2024, when it posted a full year net profit of Ks 5.4 billion (US$41.7 million approximately). The airline’s acting CEO (and back then COO) George Kamal, already warned, in an Executive Spotlight interview with AeroTime conducted in Q4 2025, that the impact of the Dreamliner groundings would be significant.
Another factor in the airline’s swing in fortunes in 2025 has been the fact that the Kenyan Shilling has stopped appreciating against the US dollar. Currency gains were a major contributor to Kenya Airways’ financial bottom line the preceding year.
The airline expects to return to profitability as soon as it can bring its capacity back up on the long-haul market. The Kenyan carrier has also registered increased demand in Q1 2026, as it captures part of the international traffic that is now avoiding transiting through hubs in the Gulf region.
In this context, reports have appeared in the Kenyan media suggesting that Kenya Airways is in the sights of several foreign investors which may be interested in acquiring a significant equity stake or even some of its business units, like its cargo division.
