| dc.description.abstract | The Airline industry is experiencing substantial passengers and cargo growth, outstripping Airline
capacity expansion (Bisignan, 2004). This has mainly been attributed by globalization and
deregulation of the Airline industry encouraging world trade. The imbalance between the growth
and capacity expansion is known to cause delays and sometimes flight cancellations increasing
Airport congestions by frustrated travellers. This situation is getting worse, particularly in JUrica,
where most connections for destinations within Africa have to be made through Europe making
these flights very expensive and tiresome.
It was in this realization that Kenya Airways, opted to expand its operations with an aim of being a
dominant carrier in Africa while maintaining a large international network via alliances with
Nairobi as its hub. Since Airlines tend to fly similar routes with similar services often matching
prices (Dimitri et al, 2002), Kenya Airways opted to differentiate its operations by replacing its old
fleet with 22 dominantly Boeing manufactured aircraft to serve more destinations through
Nairobi(Kenya Airways, 2005). It is against this background, that it became necessary to establish
Kenya Airways capacity management strategies for this expansion program. The objective was to
establish strategies for enhancing operations efficiency at Kenya Airways and consequently
challenges in the Airline Industry.
Primary data was collected by way of survey questionnaires forming the basis of this study. Data
was analysed by use of descriptive s~stics. The survey findings show that 56% of Kenya Airways
operations have the right capacity which was achieved mainly by a radical change and
benchmarking of its decentralized operations. T~e Airline placed a deliberate training program
which produced flexible work teams to provide services through variable shifts to serve tightly
scheduled in-transit flights. These operations are further integrated through Information
Technology which provides a" platform for a rapidly growing E-Ticketing strategy. The study
however, recommends further increase in capacity beyond the current level by addressing some of
its shortfalls by hiring and training more technical and flight crew meant to improve the current
low level of quality assurance and customer focus while sustaining a high level of safety and
efficiency bound to deteriorate with time. | en |
