Fresh blood needed to drive KQ revival strategy

The national carrier Kenya Airways seems to have embarked on a determined path to revival. Over the recent past massive changes, especially touching on top-level managers have occurred. Since October 2015, more than six top managers have been shown the door.

This is encouraging as it has become increasingly clear that senior managers’ acts of commission and omission are substantially responsible for the airline’s current poor state. Indeed, it is hard to argue against the fact that some managers must have soundly slept on the job and forgot how cutthroat the competition is in the aviation industry.

Those responsible for sinking the airline into the current bottomless and dark hole of losses must be hastily sent home. It is encouraging that we have since seen heads roll. However, those who have worked tirelessly to keep the airline afloat in the midst of all the raging storm of mismanagement must not only be retained but accorded more support.

Transport Cabinet secretary James Macharia has also promised more shake-ups in the leadership of the airline. “We are reviewing the entire management to ensure the best people are running KQ,” the Cabinet Secretary said.

This promise ought to be honoured sooner rather than later so that we have in office a group of men and women who have the requisite talent and vision to steer the airline back to profitability. The current state of Kenya Airways is far from rosy and only a team with the requisite skills, experience, aggressiveness and sense of duty will revive it back to its former glory.

The airline can only chart a whole new direction with a fresh team. There is a crying need for fresh blood with new thinking and ways of doing things. A paradigm shift that the airline badly needs will remain a mirage if the old guards, steeped in outdated style of management, are still calling the shots.

Thus, the appointment of Mr Jan de Vegt as the new chief operating officer should signal sweeping management changes at the airline. Having served for a long time in the aviation industry, Mr Vegt seems to have a wealth of experience that will be instrumental in the airline’s turnaround strategy. We have to scout for more of such talent and give them all the tools they need to put the flag carrier on track.

While the airline should implement far-reaching changes in all departments, special focus should be directed at the commercial, marketing, and finance departments. These sections are very crucial to any serious efforts to revive the airline.

Converted some into cargo planes

The Commercial department, which has been particularly performing below par, is charged with setting ticket prices. It is common knowledge that KQ’s fares have for a while been far more expensive compared with those of other airlines. There is no justification whatsoever why KQ’s fares in some routes are more than double those of competing airlines. National carrier has been literally working to price itself out of the skies.

This is why it has been suffering from acute shortage of passengers. How do you expect passengers to fly your planes when there are far cheaper and more comfortable services offered by other airlines, especially the Middle East players? For example, most small traders dealing in imports and exports cannot afford these sky-high fares and thus they are forced to look for alternatives.

The sale of aircraft was also not a well-considered move. The Asian routes such as Kenya-China, have high volumes of cargo because of bustling trade between these destinations.

Most international traders, especially SMEs, frequent China where they obtain their goods. Instead of selling the aircraft, Kenya Airways should have converted some into cargo planes. Other airlines have been expanding their cargo capacity yet the demand is still huge on these routes.

Strategists tasked with turning around KQ’s fortunes must therefore find ways so that it can have a bite of this sumptuous pie that other airlines are enjoying.

More fundamentally the new leadership has to find ways of accommodating the needs of traders. We have in the past tried through our various associations to engage the airline with a view to striking a mutually beneficial relationship.

Little progress has been made on this front and as traders who have borne the brunt of expensive tickets we call for new managers who will give us a keener hearing.

Our appeal is informed by the fact that traders and the national carrier can form a formidable partnership that can make significant contribution to the economy. We need to explore ways traders can help the airline reclaim and maintain its status as the pride of Africa as the carrier in turn helps the traders ease their business

Last but not leats, the marketing department has an onerous task and must therefore have the best people running it. The changes being introduced will not amount to much if they are not aggressively sold to the public.

It must therefore work closely with the commercial department which sets ticket prices. In the past, these two departments have been seemingly working at cross-purposes with the marketing being rendered a helpless spectator in determining air fares for various routes.

However excellent your marketing is, if the fares are comparatively pricey and there is nothing special in your services that makes them distinct and stand out from the rest of the airlines, then you have an uphill task selling your services.

It’s only a radical surgery that will save the airline that’s still flying in a dangerously stormy financial zone.

The writer is the chairman, China-Dubai Traders Association