sky

When Sebastian Mikosz took over as CE of loss-making Kenya Airways last June, he immediately shut its outlet in Nairobi's downmarket Accra Road. The move marked the beginning of an aggressive hunt for cost savings and premium passengers, after years of losses following a slump in tourism and large debts incurred to buy new aircraft. Mikosz, who helped turn around LOT Polish Airlines as its CE, needs to stem those losses before it can begin to pay down US$2b of debt restructured in November to stave off the airline's collapse. He says he plans to roll out a new economy plus class by the end of the year designed for business and wealthy leisure travellers, including growing numbers of American tourists and executives from dozens of Nairobi-based US firms. <br/>

Aeroflot Airline will revoke the premium frequent flyer status of unruly passengers, after 9 reported cases of intolerable conduct—including physical assault toward employees, flight attendants and airline staff at the airport—since the beginning of 2018. Most of the cases involved passengers who had premium status in the frequent flyer program. In addition, the carrier said all bonus miles will be canceled and the passenger’s Aeroflot Bonus account will be closed; offenders will not be able to get another account in the program. Aeroflot previously announced it would hand over 2 cases—one involving a business-class passenger on a Moscow-Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky flight and one involving a passenger on a Geneva-Moscow flight Jan 15 and Feb 23, respectively—to the Russian prosecution service. <br/>