the whole airline is fckd up
from dilapidated aircraft, shit meals
cabin crew staff wako na tabia za uchokoraa
kwanza any flight less than 4 hours within africa dont try on KQ
especially one’s in embraer, more expensive than other regional
carriers like ET and Rwanda…
the level of service/comfort nil
KQ used to train her own pilots pale South Africa. I don’t know what happened and they stopped it. Airlines like Singapore, ET, BA, trains their’s and an agreement is signed between trainee and the organisation where the trainee works for a stipulated amount of time as ROI. Why can’t they reintroduce it?
There is a guy from KQ told me back in 2009, they used to train pilots. Also, some Kenya air-force pilots used to resign and join KQ. All I know is Kenya has enough pilots but these fucking companies when they want to plunder money, comes with such bullshit.
KQ has like 10 Boeing 737’s. They have something like 20 captains pilots (over 10,000 flying hours) and 20 co pilots (over 5,000 flying hours) who are trained on this 737’s. The ideal no is to add more, 10 of each. This short staffed pilot crew have been overworked to the maximum schedule the union and regulators allow. Almost all of them individually have each 100 days of leave time not used. There are days even the pilots sleep times coincides with flight takeoffs and the planes are delayed to allow them to rest. KQ has had planes on the tarmack waiting as pilots complete their rest time. That costs the airline 5 billion last year. They pay passengers for delays by reducing tickets costs, booking them in hotels etc
What the pilots union don’t tell you is that there is none currently in the country to fill that pilot role. KQ is the only domestic airline flying Boeing in Kenya. They know most people think a plane is like a matatu or car. That any pilot can fly any plane. The other pilots in the industry are mostly cessna fix wing pilots not certified to fly boeing. What they want is KQ to lower that requirement and say that Embraer jets pilots can now advance to fly the Boeing 737’s. The problem here is that certification doesn’t work like that. If you want to be an airbus, boeing pilot there is no shortcut. Go to flight school certified to train you on those planes, pass and get the hours needed to fly them. The instruments, layouts, operations are different. In the past pilots who migrated from one plane manufacturer to another without training have inevitably and involuntarily made costly mistakes to equipment and lives.
What’s the solution. Ofcourse the current situation can’t continue. KQ Boeing pilots would like that as they now leverage KQ management to do their bidding as they are irreplaceable. They got their wages to match Emirates, enhanced allowances etc. However for passengers its more delays and flight reschedules. For the airline its PR nightmare as its punctuality ratings falls.
KQ has hired the 20 pilots on contract basis for 3 years. Mostly from south African airlines and air Zimbabwe who are laying them off as their airline fights operational survival. They are also only getting 66% of the wages the current KQ Boeing pilots get. In those 3 years KQ is recruiting local pilots and sending them to earn certification on Boeing planes and will replace this contract pilots then.
A simple question tu. How did we get here? KQ has been in the news for all the bad reasons. Promotions pale to Captain/ Senior Captain was done on tribal/nepotism appointments. Flight Engineers were not spared either. There was so much friction on appointments that most guys just chose to leave to Gulf states, and most swore never to return to KQ hata iumane aje, the way its doing now.
You’re right. I’ve flown twice on the JFK-Nairobi and the food is really bad! Most airplane food is gross but KQ goes out of their way to make it as nasty as possible. In addition, the hostess staff were only nice to white people while kenyans were treated like a bother.
Another thing. The entertainment screen has this super annoying song that plays everytime you select a movie. It’s a video of masaais and jungus enjoying the savannah wildlife obviously playing to the tourists on board. I kept wondering what about diasporans, when are we going to have a preview song welcoming us back home? Very racist and tone deaf airline!
KQ has the 737 flight simulator that its pilots can use to train for real flight experience or other extreme conditions. However they don’t have its own certified pilot training College. It only has the Pride centre where it trains flight crew.