Kenya Air Cuts Costs, Will Add JFK- NBO Next Year..

Kenya Airways reduced first-half losses by 20%, helped by cost cuts, and will start flights to New York in 2018, its new CEO said on Friday as the company presses ahead with its turnaround. The airline, part-owned by Air France KLM, completed a $2bn debt restructuring this week as part of turnaround plans after a slump in Kenyan travel and high financing costs on new Boeing jets sent it to the country’s biggest ever corporate loss — 26-billion shillings ($251m) — in its 2016 financial year.
Shares in the company were suspended from trading on Wednesday for two weeks while it prepared to convert some loans into equity as part of the debt restructuring.
"There is still room to improve but there is growth and that is a good signal for us," said CEO Sebastian Mikosz at an investor briefing, after the company reported a pretax loss of 3.77-billion shillings for the six months to September 30.
Operating profit rose 52% from a year earlier to 1.44-billion shillings, with Mikosz citing higher passenger numbers and reduced costs.
Revenue was flat, curbed by a drop in domestic and intra-Africa passenger traffic because of jitters over Kenya’s presidential election in August, which was subsequently nullified by the supreme court.