Kenya Airways to retire its entire Boeing 777 fleet

Kenya Airways has officially announced that as part of its on going cost cutting measures attributed to a large loss it incurred in 2014 and also to reduce its current debt of US$ 6 billion, its entire B777-200ER + B777-300ER fleet shall be grounded from September 2015 onwards. 

It acknowledged that it over estimated the usefulness of the Boeing 777-300ER in its fleet as the aircraft has proven to be way too big (from a capacity stand point) to be deployed on any of its long haul routes such as Amsterdam, Guangzhou, London and Mumbai. The carrier is keen to dispose of these assets as soon as possible as it’s a big financial drain on its balance sheet.

Currently, KQ has 3 B77Ws (400 seats) + 4 B772ERs (322 seats) in its fleet and all 7 aircraft will be retired at the conclusion of the summer peak season. Flights flown presently with the B777s will be replaced by KQ's B787-800s which seat 234 pax in a dual class layout i.e. 30J + 204Y. 

KQ has at present 6 B788s operating with 3 more units held as optional purchases. The airline is very happy with the performance economics of its B787 fleet and shall be basing its long haul operations for the next three years around the B788 fleet exclusively.