The national carrier of Kenya, Kenya Airways, that attracted unsolicited controversy after an expansion drive left it with hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, has reported its first operating profit since 2017.

Kenya Airways, the troubled flag carrier of Kenya, has reported an operating profit for the first time in seven years.

According to a press statement by the airline, it swung to an operating profit of KES 10.53 billion (USD 80.38 million) in 2023. One of Africa’s three biggest carriers, Kenya Airways slid into insolvency in 2018 after an expansion drive left it with hundreds of millions of dollars in debt.

The statement adds that last year’s operating profit was the airline’s first since 2017, it said, buoyed by a 53 pc increase in revenue to KES 178.5 billion.

“It is an indication that we are well on our path to recovery,” says CEO Allan Kilavuka.

He adds that the revenue growth was underpinned by a 35 pc increase in passenger numbers adding that it will increase flights on popular routes such as Nairobi to London and secure new planes to take advantage of that momentum in demand.

The airline expects to receive an additional cargo freighter soon and it will receive another Boeing 737-800 passenger jet by the third quarter of this year to boost capacity, Kilavuka says.

Revenue from the airline’s cargo business was down for the year, in line with the global trend, he says. The statement adds that Kenya Airways posted a pre-tax loss, however, as a steep weakening of the Kenyan shilling led to loan revaluation losses.

The shilling has started to strengthen against the dollar, meaning the outlook for this year is more positive, Kilavuka says.

“The FX situation is improving. We do expect this will work in our favour this year,” he says, adding that it would help the company to attain bottom line profitability.