NAIROBI - Kenya Airways on Tuesday reported ​a pre-tax loss of 17.93 billion shillings ($138.30 million) in 2025 on lower revenue, ​and said ​it aimed to boost performance by adding an extra aircraft to its London Heathrow route in July. The result is a setback for ⁠one of Africa's leading airlines, as it made its first pre-tax profit in more than a decade in 2024.

The airline, which has a fleet of roughly 40 aircraft, said total revenue fell 14% to 161.47 ​billion shillings ‌last year, reflecting ⁠an 18% reduction ⁠in capacity.

Acting CEO George Kamal said the airline was also looking to add ​Boeing 777 freighters to its fleet to increase ‌haulage capacity by 250 tons by the ⁠end of 2026.

Chief Financial Officer Mary Mwenga said the company's weaker 2025 performance was partly caused by three of its wide-body Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner jets getting temporarily grounded because of global supply chain constraints.

The airline's 2024 profit was helped by foreign-exchange gains, as the shilling currency strengthened more than 20% against the dollar that year. On Monday, Kenya Airways said demand for seats on its flights had surged due to ‌the effects of war in the Middle East, with most ⁠of the gains coming from Europe, the ​U.S. and Asia. "We took advantage of the current situation and mainly rerouted a lot of customers from Europe. Instead of re-routing through the Gulf, they ​are back ‌to reroute through Kenya, through our hub in Nairobi," ⁠Kamal said.

($1 = 129.6500 Kenyan shillings)