President Uhuru Kenyatta tries his hands on the control systems in the cockpit of the first Kenya Airways Dreamliner during it’s official reception at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi on April 05, 2014. FILE PHOTO | NATION
The Kenya Airline Pilots Association (KAPA) has penned an open letter to President Uhuru Kenyatta on the current state of Kenya Airways.
In an advert in one of the local dailies, KAPA Secretary General & CEO Murithi Nyagah asked the Head of State to expand Kenya Airways instead of sacking members of its staff.
The pilots cited the example of Ethiopian Airlines, RwandAir and Air Uganda which are all doing well after stepping up to fill in the gap left by the three airlines in the continent.
“Your Excellency, as opposed to issuing letters of redundancy in the midst of a pandemic – a move that will severely impact over 4,000 families who directly depend on Kenya Airways and the adverse net effect of the same, industry stakeholders have the opportunity to consultatively reposition the Airline to strategically fill the gap left by Air Mauritius and South African Airways,” the letter reads in part.
The pilots further pointed out that the decision to downsize the staff of Kenya Airways will result in the country losing its highly-trained home-grown talent to foreign talent.
“We strongly believe that expanding the Kenya Airways will give our country the opportunity to capitalize on the maturity of her hospitality industry,” the pilots said in the letter.
The association also said that Kenya Airways members of the board have decided to sacrifice their wages with an aim of ensuring that the aviation sector is well established.
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