Now that business daily has decided to censor and to flag my comments as SPAM on Ndemo's article on why KQ should read the writing on the wall, i have to "remove" gas on the ever faithful wazua..Here are my grievances about KQ as an occasional traveller and a proud Kenyan

1. Perennial delay of flights. In almost all airports, passengers stranded and sleeping at waiting bays in the late hours of the night are most likely KQ passengers.

2. It might sound unbelievable but some KQ flights especially in the(787-300 series) have tattered seats, tattered interiors.Mind you these are aeroplanes plying international routes

3. Cabin crew hoarding alcoholic drinks as if - ni za mama yao.( a clever air hostess should know a passenger stranded for hours away from home should be appeased by onywaji (Juice ,chai, water or beer) for the entire period of the flight).

4. Chakula mbaya. Most passengers avoid KQ food for fear of diarrhoea

5.Total chaos, no aplogies, little help for those who have missed connection flights coz of KQ delays.

As if a delayed flight is not bad enough, passengers are bundled in those busses at JKIA and wait for odd 5-10 mins to be transferred to arrival terminal and the question that arises is, why did the aeroplane just not park at the terminal?

In a nutshell KQ should up their game especially on international flights because at this rate Rwandair, Ethiopian, Fastjet will run them out of business

It is not debt or financial woes that will kill KQ but this utter disregard of the customer.

hapo uko na points kama mia tano

@Fyatu
1. & 5. I agree with you on the issue of delayed flights. It's become a serious issue especially with closure of the runway from midnight till 6 am for maintenance coupled with withdrawal of pilots goodwill. The airline is losing money by having to arrange accommodation for passengers who have missed connections and cancelled flights occasioned by operational inefficiencies.
2. This is a blatant lie since KQ does not operate any 787-300, all the Dreamliners KQ operates are 787-800 and could not be possibly having torn seats. These are very new aircrafts.
3. & 4. are outrageous and sentimental views given that KQ passed all IATA International operational safety audits.

There's no doubt that there's quite a lot to be done in terms of operational efficiency and enhancement of customer experience but at the same time we have to acknowledge the fact that KQ offers perhaps the best services in the continent.

@Zoori
You are contradicting matters here.How can you agree on fact 1 & 5 and at the same time believe on the fact that KQ offers best services??

I fly frequently with KQ - I haven't observed that their crew are anything but good. As a Kenyan you always feel at home in KQ and a hint of pride. Anytime I ask for drinks, I will even get an extra drink from the steward coz there's that Kenyan recognition. So I don't really have any complaints about KQ service on board. The rest of the operation though can definitely be improved.

The drama in KQ in my opinion seems to be in the main office and perhaps with some of the skewed agreements KQ has with KLM. I once sat next to an Ethiopian Airlines manager and we got discussing KQ versus Ethiopian airlines. And basically his take was that KQ top management earn outrageous salaries compared to Ethiopian staff. Also serving at a high level in Ethiopian Airlines is considered a privilege and almost a patriotic job. I think at the time Ethiopian had announced an annual net profit of about 100M USD. Last year Ethiopian made about 170M USD in profit.

Kenya badly needs KQ though - make no mistake. KQ should be one of the pillars of Vision 2030 - it's that important. It would be a real shame if we ended up like Nigeria and Ghana who have no national airlines to speak of. KQ makes Kenya look like a reliable country and is perhaps why we are likely to become the hub of African business in the continent. So if KQ goes down, even us Wazuans here will feel it.