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Kenya Airways has not considered switching its future plane orders to Airbus following Boeing’s 737-MAX jet crisis, the airline’s chairman said Tuesday after it posted a rise in last year’s revenue. The airline, in which Air France-KLM holds a 7.8% stake, reported revenue of 114.45b shillings (US$1.13b) for the 12 months to Dec. 31, up from 106.17b a year earlier. The carrier, which narrowed its pretax loss for the period to 7.59b shillings from 9.44b, needs to boost its fleet of Boeing and Embraer planes to grow its business in the face of stiff competition from rivals like Ethiopian Airlines. “We have a plan to grow the fleet if we had the means to do that and it is both wide bodies and narrow bodies. That means the 787s, 737s and Embraers,” Michael Joseph told Reuters after an investor briefing. “We haven’t even thought about possibly going to A320-Neo. It is not even in our thoughts at the moment. We need to see where they are going with the 737 Max,” Joseph said. The airline, whose balance sheet swung back into negative equity territory last year after fuel and fleet ownership costs surged, wants to run the main airport in Nairobi to boost its cash flow and allow it to buy new planes. The proposal, backed by the cabinet last year, is in the hands of parliament’s transport committee which has to approve it before it is implemented, Joseph said.<br/>

Korean Air said Wednesday that it will remove the first-class seats from 27 international routes beginning in June, leaving only two options -- economy and prestige -- on 76 of its 111 routes. The change is seen as a move by the air carrier to increase the efficiency and maximize the profitability of its flight services. As of June 1, only 35 routes -- some 30 percent of Korean Air’s international flights -- will offer first-class seats. Currently, the air carrier does not offer a first-class option on most of its short-distance flights bound for cities in China, Japan and Southeast Asian countries. For short-distance flights, Korean Air said it will offer first-class seats only on major routes such as those to Beijing, Osaka, Hong Kong, Taipei, Bangkok, Singapore, Manila, Jakarta and Hanoi. “We decided to apply two class seat options for flights to tourism destinations where there was low demand for first class. We will do our best to minimize the inconvenience of first-class passengers and maintain quality service for prestige-class passengers,” said a Korean Air official. <br/>

Air France has made modest changes in its winter 2019-20 schedules, increasing frequencies rather than the number of destinations. In the long-haul sector, the company will add three weekly frequencies on its Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) to Santiago de Chile route, taking the total to 10 flights. Three weekly flights operated by Boeing 787s will add to the daily 777 service. Similarly, Air France will boost its flights from Paris CDG to Washington DC from seven to 11 flights weekly, with the additional services being operated by Airbus A330s to complement the daily 777. In the short- to medium-haul categories, the French flag carrier will double the number of flights between Paris CDG and Naples to 2X-daily. The company will more than double its flights between Paris CDG and Ljubljana (Slovenia), from 6X-weekly to 13X-weekly, while services from Paris CDG to Marrakech (Morocco) will double, to 12X-weekly. Finally, the daily flight to Belgrade from Paris CDG that began March 31 will continue throughout the 2019-2020 winter season. Together with its partner Air Serbia, Air France will offer 19X-weekly flights to the Serbian capital, seven using its own aircraft and 12 codeshare flights operated by Air Serbia.<br/>