I see that Ed Winter was still in denial on his final day with Fastjet.
He blamed the currency devaluation, the election in Tanzania, the change in government and policies and the slowing of the local economies. The fact is he misread the market and made some catastrophic strategic errors. Under his leadership the airline has so far swallowed $250 million with still no signs of turning a profit on the horizon.
Ed chose to expand the fleet by an additional two aircraft just after the African currencies were at their weakest last year, despite knowing that a third aircraft leased earlier in the year had still not been utilised. It hasn't yet been shown that with low fares you can stimulate the market as has been the case in Europe, probably because the 2 markets are entirely different.
AFAIK the airline's overall load factor has been only around 60% and it's been as low as 10% on some routes. I personally think Ed Winter has misled investors and has completely failed to manage costs. I have a couple of friends working for Fastjet and they're seriously worried about their job security at the moment as well as having little respect for, or faith in, the expatriate managers.
What has Jimmy Kibati added since his employment? He had a good career with Kenya Airways, but seems to have achieved little since joining FJET. Last year in an interview with Business and Tech in Kenya he said
You must have a smart management team
You got to have a management team with people who are smart and who know what they do. They should be proper leaders who know how to guide the ship even in stormy waters.
Most of the time when you see the airlines collapsing, it is when the ship get into stormy waters and everyone becomes confused, steering it this and that way, and the ship loses guidance.
You need people who are stable and steady and know how to guide the ship during the stormy waters. I have found that to be the biggest challenge for start ups that have come around.
I don't see much sign of that in Fastjet and I fear it'll take very optimistic investors with very deep pockets to keep the airline going.
It's not the fault of the employees, just poor management
