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Kenya Airways said on Tuesday its pretax loss widened in the first half of 2023 as a weaker Kenyan shilling eclipsed improved revenues. The airline, one of Africa's three biggest, has been insolvent since 2018 after an expansion drive left it with hundreds of millions of dollars of debt it could not service. Its pretax loss rose to 21.7b shillings ($149.45m) in the first half from 9.9b shillings a year earlier. Hellen Mwariri, the airline's chief financial officer, told an investor briefing that foreign exchange losses jumped to 15.3b shillings from 398m shillings in the same period in 2022. The shilling has struck repeated record lows since late 2021 and is down 15% so far this year against the dollar. "The reason why this has a significant impact on our results is because we have a lot of legacy debt, about $1 billion of debt, and when you reconvert it using the new exchange rates, it hits your P&L (profit and loss account)," said Allan Kilavuka, Kenya Airways CEO. Kenya Airways shares were suspended from trading on the Nairobi Securities Exchange in March 2020, pending the completion of a restructuring plan. Total revenue in the first half rose 56% to 75.1b shillings from 48.1b shillings in H1 2022, while operating costs rose to 74.1b shillings from 53.1b shillings in the first six months of last year. Revenues were lifted by an increase in passenger numbers to 2.3m from 1.6m in H1 2022, the airline said.<br/>

China Airlines is choosing between Boeing’s yet-to-be certified 777X and the largest variant of Airbus SE’s A350 as it looks to retire existing long-haul jets, its president Kao Shing-Hwang said. “We are looking for a new fleet” to replace the 10 Boeing 777-300ER it currently operates, Kao told Bloomberg Television in an interview. Taiwan’s main airline is exploring Boeing’s upgraded 777 or the Airbus A350-1000, Kao said, without specifying a timetable for the upgrade. Boeing previously won a deal for 16 787-9 Dreamliners from Taiwan’s main airline. At the Paris Air Show in June, it ordered eight more jets, and converted six to the larger -10 high-capacity planes. The US planemaker could do with a boost to a sluggish order book for its delayed 777X flagship jet, even as its smaller 787 remains popular. Airbus, meanwhile, has continued to pick up a steady stream of orders for its largest twin-aisle aircraft, most recently from Qantas Airways. Kao said the company will have a better sense of the required units once the number of 787-10s is decided. The airline operates more than 85 aircraft, including 23 freighter jets. China Airlines’s 10 777-300ERs average about 8.3 years in age. It also flies the Airbus A350-900. The government-backed company has benefited from higher fares as air travel comes back. Kao predicted that ticket prices will continue to rise, not least as charges mount for more sustainable flying. <br/>