Nairobi – Kenya Airways is considering offering higher wages to entice back dozens of engineers who quit the loss-making carrier to join Gulf-based airlines in the past year, its chairman said on Friday.
Michael Joseph told reporters in Nairobi that the airline had recorded had an exodus of engineers due to financial predicament.
“We have had an exodus of engineers from Kenya Airways … We will be looking at some adjustments in packages and things like that to attract them back.
“We are also in discussions with pilots union, KALPA, to allow it hire foreign pilots on short-term contracts if the need arises.
“We may have a shortage of pilots as well,” he said, adding that the firm was seeking to lift the productivity and efficiency of existing pilots.
Joseph said he was interviewing candidates to replace outgoing Chief Executive Mbuvi Ngunze, who is set to leave at the end of March.
The new chairman said he expected interviews for the CEO post to be concluded by the end of this month.
The airline, part-owned by the state and part-owned by AirFrance KLM, sank into the red four years ago after tourism slumped following attacks in Kenya by Somalia-based al Shabaab Islamist group.
Its financial predicament caused salary delays and industrial action, with 70 engineers quitting the carrier to join airlines mainly in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
The Kenyan airline currently has about 600 engineers.
In November, KALPA had threatened an indefinite strike and had demanded the removal of the airline’s previous chairman Dennis Awori and chief executive Ngunze.
In the three months to December, the airline posted a four per cent increase in passenger numbers.