• Beijing route pushed back as three of nine Dreamliners grounded
• Carrier plans $500 mln raise after 2025 loss to expand fleet

Nairobi and Beijing to 2026 due to continued aircraft maintenance delays, several media sources reported. The route was originally scheduled to begin this year.

The persistent delays are a consequence of global supply chain challenges and production bottlenecks for key aerospace components, severely impacting the carrier’s long-haul fleet.

Kenya Airways, based at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, currently has three of its nine Boeing B787-8 long-haul aircraft grounded. The grounding stems from a persistent maintenance backlog linked to a global shortage of spare parts and a lack of capacity for overhauling General Electric GEnx-1B70 engines. These issues are directly constraining the airline's long-haul network and slowing its expansion plan.

The fleet constraints contributed to the airline recording a pre-tax loss of 12.17 billion shillings (approximately $94 million USD) in the first half of 2025. Despite the setback, the carrier announced in August a plan to raise $500 million USD by the first quarter of 2026 to reinforce its fleet, which it aims to expand from 34 to 53 aircraft over the next five years.

In 2024, Kenya Airways returned to profitability for the first time in over a decade. The airline attributed that year's performance to a 10 percent increase in capacity, which drove 4 percent traffic growth and a total of 5.23 million passengers.

Henoc Dossa