KQ One year ago

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Airline is safe, says KQ boss
Published on May 7, 2008, 12:00 am
By Alex Ndegwa
Kenya Airways Chief Executive Officer, Mr Titus Naikuni, has reaffirmed that the airline’s planes are safe to fly.
The national carrier also said it had an average $200 million (Sh12 billion) annual budget for safety and maintenance of its fleet.
Naikuni explained that a leaked internal report that questioned the company’s safety record was prepared as a routine measure to improve the airline’s services.
"We report (safety incidents) so that we manage our own safety. We are a safe airline," he told The Standard in an interview at his office Tuesday.
Naikuni explained that the 135 incidents reported in the confidential ‘Flight Safety Report January-March 2008’ and published by The Standard were varied and not confined to aircraft only.
"The incidents include, for instance, a passenger falling sick in the plane or other safety concerns that are not necessarily related to aircraft like accidents involving our vehicles," he said.
Added the KQ chief: "Only about 40 per cent are aircraft related and these, too, include incidents like bird strikes."
Kenya Airways CEO, Mr Titus Naikuni, speaks to The Standard during an exclusive interview at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi, on Tuesday. Picture: Stafford Ondego
He said the report was used internally to improve safety systems and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) had not questioned the airline’s safety standards.
Naikuni denied reports by The Standard that top IATA officials had planned to hold a meeting in Nairobi to review KQ’s safety standards.
Said he: "We have neither spoken to them (IATA) nor have they summoned us to appear before them. In fact, the regional IATA manager confirmed during a joint press conference on Sunday that they had no safety issue against Kenya Airways.
"We are proud to be an IOSA (IATA Operational Safety Audit) registered airline due to our stringent safety system," Naikuni added.
He explained that the safety report was meant to show that the airline’s safety record was impeccable.
"The number of incidents is gauged per 100 sectors. While we flew over 7,000 sectors, the figure translated to two incidents per 100 sectors for the period under review and this was the same as last year. The figures do not indicate that our safety standards have deteriorated at all," Naikuni said.
The Kenya Airways boss also explained circumstances surrounding the twin mishaps in Entebbe and Kisumu involving the airline’s aircraft, which he termed minor incidents.
With regard to the Kisumu Airport incident, Naikuni clarified that contrary to media reports that the plane failed to take off due to engine failure, the slight delay was caused by the cooling system.
Naikuni further said the visit to the airport with Kenya Airports Authority Managing Director, Mr George Muhoho, at the time, had not been prompted by safety concerns raised in the media.
Competent engineers
"We had gone to inspect the airport’s runway", he said.
The Entebbe incident was due to bad weather, said Naikuni.
"The pilot managed to land the plane on the edge of the runway, but it did slide a bit because they had braked hard," he said.
He was emphatic that Kenya Airways had competent engineers and had not enlisted the assistance of foreign technicians.
Our sister publication, The Saturday Standard, had reported that the airline had hired 11 aircraft engineers from France to undertake a thorough maintenance of its 23 aircraft.
Naikuni said the airline had re-opened several routes, including the Nairobi-Johannesburg one.
Paris flights would resume on June 10 and the Johannesburg-Mombasa once the season begins, he added.
But Naikuni warned passengers that they would have to dig deeper in their pockets because rising fuel prices had pushed the airline’s expenses to Sh27 billion.
"We can’t absorb all increases. We will have to increase air fares," he said.
Kenya Airways Technical Director, Mr Allan Fullilove, said the airline had a huge budget of about $200 million to ensure the 23 aircraft was properly maintained.
The airline conformed to standards set by the regulator, Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, as well as a rigorous internal quality audit system, he added.
At the same time, Naikuni said the airline had compensated some families of the victims of last year’s plane crash in Cameroon’s commercial capital, Douala, in which 114 people died.
"We have compensated quite a number," although he said details could not be divulged for legal reasons.
He said the affected families could deal with the airline or through lawyers.
Naikuni explained the delay in the release of the crash report, saying the responsibility of investigating the accident was the preserve of the country where it occurred.
The crash had initially affected business, but the airline had since recovered, he added.


Looks like the report hasn't been released yet.