Kenya Airways cancels flights after outsourced staff stay away from work

By MARTIN KINYANJUI

Kenya Airways has cancelled several fights scheduled for Sunday morning and delayed another after several outsourced crew failed to report to work.

In a statement issued Sunday morning, the national carrier said the staff, including cabin crew had stayed away from work since Friday due to issues with their employer.

“As per the safety regulations that the airline abides to, minimum number of cabin staff per aircraft type is require and on some of our flights we were unable to reach these levels,” the statement said.

The cancelled flights are KQ 600 to Mombasa, KQ 432 to Kilimanjaro, KQ 350 to Juba KQ 706 to Lusaka/Harare, KQ 740 to Maputo, KQ252 to Dzaoudzi and Moroni, while flight KQ 782 to Livingston/Cape Town was delayed.

The statement added that travellers in the affected flights would be re-booked on other flights or airlines.

The airline is grappling with a strike threat by members of the Kenya Airline Pilots Association (Kalpa), who have said they will down their tools on Tuesday despite a court order barring the industrial action.

Should the pilots go ahead with the strike, this could be a financially costly standoff for the troubled airline that is trying to fly out of turbulence.

However, despite the staff hitches, the airline said on its twitter page that it “operated 60 flights out 72 scheduled today”.

SOURCE:nation.co.ke