Kenya Airways (KQ, Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta) plans to acquire bigger freighter aircraft as intra-African trade expands and exports from the region bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic slump, cargo director Dick Murianki told Bloomberg in an interview in Nairobi. He did not specify the aircraft types being considered.
He said Kenya Airways needs bigger freighters to improve its economies of scale as demand for cargo space is growing at about 11% per year, nearly double the rate of expansion before 2020. He said the airline carried 56,576 tonnes of cargo in 2023, compared to 68,264 tonnes in 2019.
"We’re looking forward to exceeding those levels in 2025 and moving beyond," he said. "A few years ago we were talking about less than 5% of intra-African trade. We are now going toward 20% and it’s going to increase."
ch-aviation has asked for more input from Group CEO Allan Kilavuka, who previously said the airline would be ready to expand with widebody freighters by 2026. Kenya Airways previously voiced aspirations for B767-300Fs.
The choice may be affected by the airline's pending decision, due in the first quarter of 2025, whether to go for Airbus or Boeing for the replacement aircraft type of its E190 passenger fleet.
The airline's current cargo fleet of four narrowbody freighters comprises two company-owned B737-300(SF)s and two B737-800(SF)s dry-leased from GA Telesis, the ch-aviation fleets module shows.
According to ADS-B data, the freighters operate from Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta and Eldoret to regional destinations such as Sharjah (UAE), Djibouti (Djibouti), Douala (Cameroon), N'Djamena (Chad), Lagos (Nigeria), Juba (South Sudan), Mogadishu and Hargeisa (Somalia), as well as Johannesburg O.R. Tambo (South Africa), Brazzaville (Congo). The two B737-300 freighters were last tracked at Harare International (Zimbabwe) on February 12 (5Y-KQC (msn 29088)) and at Lusaka (Zambia) on February 21 (5Y-KQD (msn 29750)).
