Ailing KQ Outranks Ethiopian Airlines in African Ranking

Kenya Airways (KQ), the flag carrier airline of Kenya has outranked Ethiopian Airline, Ethiopia’s flag carrier airline in the list of 25 most admired African Brands by African Business, an African business magazine.

In the list of top admired African brands, KQ was ranked position 14 while Ethiopian Airlines took position 21. This came as a shocker considering Ethiopian Airways was voted Africa’s best airline in 2018 by Skytrax, UK–based consultancy which runs an airline and airport review and ranking site.

KQ whose slogan is ‘Pride of Africa’ has been recording losses for quite some time. It posted a USD 75 Mn net loss for year ended December 2018. It made a net loss of USD 63 Mn in the 9-month period between April 1 and Dec 31 2017.

Kenya Airways cumulative loses over the past six years is now at USD 882 Mn following the release of its latest results early this month. This is despite a massive debt restructuring plan they committed to in 2017 which was anticipated to bring the loss-making Kenyan carrier back to profitability.

The Kenyan carrier is facing woes the latest one being resignation of the Polish expat, Sebastian Mikosz who was was appointed in 2017 with hopes that he would reverse the national carrier’s loss-making streak.

While KQ has been recording massive losses, Ethiopian Airlines reported net profits of USD 233 Mn in the 2017/18 financial year. The airline currently operates more than 100 aircraft, more than any other African airline and transported more than 10 million passengers last year alone.

Apart from KQ, four other Kenyan companies also appeared in the list of the top 25 most admired African brands. They include Telecoms firm Safaricom which was placed at the fourth position, Tusker was ranked position nine and Bidco appeared in position 22.

Cement-maker Dangote was the most admired brand while the second, third and fourth most admired were South Africa’s telco MTN, Ethiopia’s Anbessa Shoes and South Africa’s DSTV respectively.

Featured Image Courtesy: Nairobi Business Monthly