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Kenya Airways' George Kamal (center) during a panel session at Dubai Airshow.
DUBAI—Kenya Airways sees opportunities to leverage partnerships both within and beyond Africa for MRO growth as it nears a new agreement in support of that vision.
“There is one [partnership] being finalized currently with one major airline from the U.S.,” Kenya Airways COO George Kamal said Nov. 17 at Dubai Airshow. Two unnamed MROs from the Middle East region are also prepared to invest in the partnership, the executive disclosed. The company is currently constructing a new hangar, to join others already used for airframe maintenance, which is infrastructure that will help support future partnerships.
“What we're doing today is we're trying to actually work with other players in the market to grow MROs within, not only Kenya, but also within the African continent … [We are] asking other airlines or other MROs if they want to grow their business,” Kamal explained.
“The number of MROs might be sufficient for today, but it's not sufficient for tomorrow,” he added, nodding to expanding fleets and rising costs. “Size and the inflation is going to come very soon, so that's why we're trying to cope with this.”
The carrier is also testing artificial intelligence (AI) to improve its MRO reliability, operational efficiency and to manage lifecycle costs. Just six months into those trials, the company is already seeing an impact, citing a 12-15% improvement in turnaround time and cost savings of about 5-6%.
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