National carrier Kenya Airways (NSE: KQ) slipped back to losses in FY2025, recording a net loss of KES 17.9 billion for the period under review. In FY2024, the airline posted a net profit of KES 5.4 billion, bucking a trend of consistent annual losses going back to FY2012.
Total revenue stood at KES 161.5 billion, a decline of 14.3% year-on-year from KES 188.5 billion recorded in FY2024, with operating costs declining by 2.8% to close at KES 167.1 billion. The decline in revenue was on account of a 13% decline in passenger numbers while operating costs retreated as a result of reduced operations in the period under review following the grounding of three Dreamliner aircraft due to technical challenges.
The operating costs exceeded the revenue earned during the year, resulting in an operating loss of KES 5.6 billion as compared to KES 16.6 billion in operating profit recorded in FY2024.
Kenya Airways Returns to Loss on Costs
Finance costs grew mildly, up 11% to KES 12.4 billion, with interest income rising by KES 10 billion or 14.5% to settle at KES 79 billion. As a result, pre-tax losses totaled KES 17.9 billion from KES 5.5 billion in the previous fiscal year, while the net result for the operating period was a KES 17.2 billion loss from KES 5.4 billion in net profit recorded in FY2024. The resultant loss per share was KES 2.94 from KES 0.95 in earnings per share in FY2024.
“In 2025, we experienced a number of challenges. There were geopolitical reasons. Whenever there is a tension like the one we are experiencing in the Middle East and probably in other places, if you fly in a certain manner, when there is tension in that country then you are forced to use a longer route and as a result of that navigation costs go up, fuel consumption on the aircraft go up. So there are costs as much as you have grounded fleet, you will still incur those costs.”
“We also had weather conditions. You will not have to fly to some places like recently we had Rwanda, Kigali – we were not able to fly. You land there and you cannot be able to come back. You are consuming fuel, navigation, you land in Nairobi, you will have to put these passengers in an hotel, and you will have to incur all those distraction costs. When you have grounded the aircraft, there is storage costs and other related costs. By the time you return that aircraft back to service, the amount of money you will have incurred, that is also an additional cost and that’s why the decline in revenues will not be in tandem with the decline in costs, and the decline in revenues will be much faster than the decline in costs. The cost of having an aircraft on the ground is much higher than the cost of flying it in the sky.” – Mary Mwenga, Acting Chief Finance Officer, Kenya Airways.
Kenya Airways is currently focusing on bringing back the grounded aircraft to operations and raising capital to increase the fleet size and revenue diversification, cut debt and improve the firm’s liquidity position.
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