Kenya Airways Moves to Start Paying Pilots Per Flight

As the national carrier seeks a lower salary bill to weather the coronavirus storm that has crushed air travel demand, Kenya Airways is pressing to get its pilots paid per flight.

Allan Kilavuka, chief executive officer of Kenya Airways, said the airline would hold talks over the radical pay package with the pilots.

Due to the slow recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kenya Airways aims to cut costs in a strategy that will see it lay off an undisclosed number of staff, get rid of certain properties and review aircraft leasing terms.

“We are looking at an arrangement where we pay pilots as they fly,” Mr Kilavuka told the Business Daily in an interview. “Where do we get cash to pay pilots if planes are grounded?”

The airline, which had been struggling long before the outbreak of Covid-19, deployed 26% of its aircraft capacity to reduce air travel, especially on European routes. In order to survive the cash flow crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the airline earlier said it preferred to lay off half of its pilots.

For the next three years, the national carrier plans to slash up to 207 of its 414 pilot jobs, which account for almost half of its payroll costs.

READ ALSO: COVID-19: IATA Says Africa’s Aviation Will Lose 3.5m Jobs

If it reaches the desired goal of getting between 207 and 248 pilots on its books, it plans to save approximately Sh3.24 billion.

Pilots constitute 10 percent of the total staff of the airline, but take home the equivalent of 45 percent of the total employee payout or Sh6.48 billion based on the wage bill of the carrier for the year.

This implies that on average a Kenya Airways pilot receives Sh1.3 million from the airline, a pay that matches the salaries of top chief executives of State-owned firms such as KenGen, Kenya-Re and Kenya Power.

Employees in the Kenya Aviation Workers Union (KAWU) makeup the majority of the workforce at 65 percent but take home about 30.5 percent of Kenya Airways’ payroll.

Airline managers are 22 percent of the workforce and earn salaries equal to 22 percent of payroll costs. The Kenya Airline Pilots Association (KALPA) said that once the scheme is put forward for negotiation, it would provide the merits and demerits of pay per trip.