Kenya Airways’ plan to launch direct flights between Nairobi and Beijing Daxing International Airport in 2025 is encountering significant turbulence, not in the skies but on the ground.

A global shortage of aircraft and critical spare parts has stalled progress, the carrier’s chief executive, Allan Kilavuka, admits, casting a cloud over the airline’s efforts to expand its footprint in Asia during a milestone year marking two decades of operations in China.

Mr Kilavuka told The EastAfrican that there has been no progress on the plan but the airline was “trying to get equipment.”“We need all our Dreamliners back in operation, along with additional ones, to run the network efficiently next year. As you are aware, there is a significant shortage of aircraft globally,” he said.

KQ announced the plan to launch direct flights between Nairobi and Beijing Daxing International Airport last year, with hopes of implementing it in 2025 to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the airline’s operations in the Asian nation.

In a published article on September 9 titled How Kenya Airways Plans to Overcome Financial Turbulence, Mr Kilavuka said that global supply chain shocks continue to constrain the availability of critical aircraft parts and delay the delivery of new planes.

Kenya Airways, he noted, finds itself at the mercy of these global headwinds.“The aviation industry worldwide is still contending with the aftershocks of Covid-19. Severe supply chain disruptions continue to constrain the availability of critical aircraft parts and delay the delivery of new aircraft,” he wrote.“Today, ordering a new aircraft now means waiting seven to eleven years for delivery. Kenya Airways, too, finds itself at the mercy of these global headwinds. At present, three of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners remain grounded—awaiting engine overhauls at a limited number of approved global facilities. This has curtailed the airline’s overall capacity by 20 percent.”Geopolitical tremors—particularly the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and unrest in the Middle East—have further exacerbated global instability. Scheduled aircraft maintenance now extends far beyond projected timelines, as industry giants Boeing and Airbus grapple with an unprecedented backlog exceeding 17,000 aircraft orders.

If successful, the proposed direct flights between Nairobi and Beijing will mark a significant step in enhancing travel between Africa and China, opening up exciting new avenues for travel professionals across the continent.

The proposed route responds to a surge in Chinese visitors to Kenya, whose arrivals grew from 51,000 in 2023 to 80,000 in 2024. The upward trend is expected to continue, with projections looking at 150,000 Chinese visitors in the near future.

Beyond tourism, the direct flights are expected to boost business travel and trade between Kenya and China.

The airline cited severe capacity challenges as the key factor behind the slump in performance, with senior management reporting that 33 percent of its wide-body aircraft remained grounded during the first six months of the year.

The aircraft were grounded due to difficulties in sourcing spare parts in the global market.

KQ contributes $2.6 billion to the GDP and stands as a significant source of tax revenue.

The airline sustains more than 5,000 direct jobs, 20,000 indirect jobs, and supports a further 300,000 livelihoods in interconnected industries, including tourism.

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