Kenya Airways' Group Managing Director and CEO, Titus Naikuni, last week warned the USA that if they did not become more amenable to direct Kenya-USA flights, the airline might switch future aircraft orders away from Boeing to Airbus.
This doesn't look a good move. Although Boeing would be sorry to lose a good customer, soon to add 787s to its fleet of 737s, 767s and 777s, it would not, in view of its huge backlog of orders for all types,- now hugely reinforced by the Gulf fraternity at the Dubai Air Show,- lose too much sleep over this. Face yes, a bit of that as it has kept Airbus out of Kenya Airways since the 2001 777 v A330 contest, but sleep no.
Kenya Airways does not have a large fleet. It isn't a Qatar Airways which can shout at any and every one and still be assiduously courted, however much it may hurt or aggrieve those doing the courting. Its engineering and flight operations are used to Boeing and their performance and design philosophies. They are well geared up to flying their products. To switch to an alternative at this stage of their growth programme would be a huge and expensive complication. The USA and Boeing know that.
Mr Naikuni would have done better to quietly talk to the Americans either in Nairobi or Washington , -as he must surely have done in the past,- behind closed doors about how the practical obstacles to direct flights can be overcome. Only a couple of years ago Delta were within 24 hours of opening flights when a last minute abort was ordered by Washington.
What was and is the problem?
In one word,- security.
Recent events in Nairobi will not have helped. First was the alleged action or inaction of the police and army when fire destroyed the central international arrivals building at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Far worse though was what appeared to happen in the more recent terrorist attack on Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall. The exact actions of the police and army are unclear and the Kenya government appears to be in no hurry to talk openly about them. What is evident enough though is that a small well organised group of intruders killed a lot of people quickly in the opening stages and that whatever the security forces responses were they didn't contain the problem and that as result it got chaotically worse. The question then has to be what would have happened if the attack had been on the airport and how it, or any other form of attempt to infiltrate security proceedures either in the building or on the ramp, would have been dealt with. In theory the airport is secure and the airlines operate on that basis. In reality there are serious fears that it isn't. Those are the things with which Mr Naikuni has to confront the Kenya Government and get fixed. At the moment the US refusal to allow direct operations makes them his best ally, not his adversary, in talking to his own government. The conversations will not be easy in a country where official denial is a way of life. They are though the only way to go.
Meanwhile it's probably best to stick with Boeing who Kenya Airways and its people know well and whose products they are good at operating. Using your friends as hostages isn't a good idea.
This doesn't look a good move. Although Boeing would be sorry to lose a good customer, soon to add 787s to its fleet of 737s, 767s and 777s, it would not, in view of its huge backlog of orders for all types,- now hugely reinforced by the Gulf fraternity at the Dubai Air Show,- lose too much sleep over this. Face yes, a bit of that as it has kept Airbus out of Kenya Airways since the 2001 777 v A330 contest, but sleep no.
Kenya Airways does not have a large fleet. It isn't a Qatar Airways which can shout at any and every one and still be assiduously courted, however much it may hurt or aggrieve those doing the courting. Its engineering and flight operations are used to Boeing and their performance and design philosophies. They are well geared up to flying their products. To switch to an alternative at this stage of their growth programme would be a huge and expensive complication. The USA and Boeing know that.
Mr Naikuni would have done better to quietly talk to the Americans either in Nairobi or Washington , -as he must surely have done in the past,- behind closed doors about how the practical obstacles to direct flights can be overcome. Only a couple of years ago Delta were within 24 hours of opening flights when a last minute abort was ordered by Washington.
What was and is the problem?
In one word,- security.
Recent events in Nairobi will not have helped. First was the alleged action or inaction of the police and army when fire destroyed the central international arrivals building at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Far worse though was what appeared to happen in the more recent terrorist attack on Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall. The exact actions of the police and army are unclear and the Kenya government appears to be in no hurry to talk openly about them. What is evident enough though is that a small well organised group of intruders killed a lot of people quickly in the opening stages and that whatever the security forces responses were they didn't contain the problem and that as result it got chaotically worse. The question then has to be what would have happened if the attack had been on the airport and how it, or any other form of attempt to infiltrate security proceedures either in the building or on the ramp, would have been dealt with. In theory the airport is secure and the airlines operate on that basis. In reality there are serious fears that it isn't. Those are the things with which Mr Naikuni has to confront the Kenya Government and get fixed. At the moment the US refusal to allow direct operations makes them his best ally, not his adversary, in talking to his own government. The conversations will not be easy in a country where official denial is a way of life. They are though the only way to go.
Meanwhile it's probably best to stick with Boeing who Kenya Airways and its people know well and whose products they are good at operating. Using your friends as hostages isn't a good idea.
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