Kenyan budget carrier Jambojet turns to used planes as costs rise

Kenya’s first low-cost airline Jambojet is leasing used planes as it seeks savings in the face of severe cost pressures from a weaker local currency and high fuel prices, its CE said on Thursday. The Kenya Airways owned no-frills carrier is set to receive its eighth DeHavilland Dash 8-400 plane next month, followed by the potential delivery of a ninth inQ1 next year, CEO Karanja Ndegwa told Reuters. “We used to get the new ones just also as we build our maintenance capabilities but over time, the ones that we are getting now, they are not new,” he said. Jambojet is leasing planes that have been in service for at least two years, which are coming with shorter lease terms compared with new ones, Ndegwa said. The company expects passenger numbers to grow by a fifth this year to 1.2m, he said, mainly due to demand on local routes by business travellers. “We are on our way there,” he said, adding that the airline was also benefiting from a recovery in the tourism sector following the COVID-19 pandemic. The nine-year old airline carried 719,000 passengers in 2019, before its business was severely curtailed by the pandemic over the next two years. In 2022, it transported 1m passengers. But like other businesses in the East African country, the company is feeling the pressure from a steep weakening of the shilling currency against the dollar.<br/>