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Kenya’s hailing national carrier set to get a shot in the arm after government commits to inject $450 million to get it back on its feet

Body of stowaway falls from Kenya Airways plane
  • Acting Cabinet Secretary, Treasury Ukur Yattani has said the government is ready to support the cash trapped airline in its turnaround strategy
  • KQ needs up to Sh45 billion ($450 million) to get operations back to profitability, according to chairman Michael Joseph.
  • The ‘pride of Africa’ as the loss-making airline likes to pride is currently in the red and has been pleading for a capital injection.

Kenya’s hailing national carrier, Kenya Airways (KQ) is set to get a shot in the arm from the national government.

Acting Cabinet Secretary, Treasury Ukur Yattani has announced the government is committed to supporting the cash trapped airline in its turnaround strategy that requires government financial support.

Speaking in Nairobi on Friday, during the release of the 2019 tourism sector performance results, Yattani said the government has a revival plan.

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“Very soon we are going to have it done. As Treasury we are working on looking for resources to inject into KQ so that they can continue to remain float,” the CS told tourism stakeholders, the Star reported.

KQ needs up to Sh45 billion ($450 million) to get operations back to profitability, according to chairman Michael Joseph.

The ‘pride of Africa’ as the loss-making airline likes to pride itself is currently in the red and has been pleading for a capital injection to help it stabilize its operations, which has been dented by a high debt stock.

The airline doubled its half-year losses after it posted a Sh8.56 billion ($85.6 million) half-year loss for the period ended June 30,2019 from the Sh4.03 billion ($40.3 million) posted in a similar period previous year.

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Plans are underway to nationalize the airline which according to the government, remains critical in the growth of the country's economy.

“Cabinet has passed the policy on nationalization. We are now working on administrative and procedural issues to make sure that we align the acts in regards to the laws in place because we cannot afford to lose KQ in anyway,” said Yattani.

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