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Kenya Airways has told its customers to be prepared for potential disruptions to its flights schedule during the busy Christmas holiday season due to shortages of spare parts.
The carrier, one of the biggest in Africa, said the lack of parts, which is affecting the global supply chain, would disrupt flights for about two weeks.
The deal is bound to attract antitrust scrutiny as US regulators challenge JetBlue Airways Corp’s proposed USD 3.8 billion acquisition of Spirit Airlines Inc in court. Antitrust enforcers have been suspicious of mergers between small airlines despite 80% of the US aviation sector controlled by four players: United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines . They were successful in getting JetBlue in July to abandon a three-year-old alliance with American Airlines.
“These challenges are leading to extended ground time of our aircraft for maintenance,” it said in a statement seen by Reuters on December 11. “This may also lead to grounding of one or more of our aircraft.” The airline first flagged the problems it is grappling with due to spare parts shortages in January this year. At the time, it attributed the shortages to the Ukraine war, which crippled the Russian supply chain for global aviation.
Supply of titanium from Russia, a key raw material for the aviation industry crucial to the maintenance of planes, had been interrupted by the conflict, the company said at the time.
Kenya Airways, whose strategy hinges on connecting African travellers to the world and vice-versa through its Nairobi hub, operates a fleet of Boeing and Embraer planes.
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