Kenya Airways has finalised its Sh800million retrenchment programme that has seen 578 employees leave the company.

Releasing the numbers Thursday morning, the airline said out of the 578 that left only 125 opted for the early retirement package.
This means that 453 employees were declared redundant. Kenya Airways said the exercise will cost Sh800 million to foot the severance pay of the affected workers.

Chief Executive Titus Naikuni said the layoffs will see it save about Sh1billion per year.

"We had told the union that the pay hike we gave the employees during the strike was unsustainable in the long run. I guess the chicken have now come home to roost,” Mr Naikuni said Thursday but declined to comment on why the airline ignored a directive from Prime Minister Raila Odinga to suspend the layoffs.

If you read KQ financials, there is an item called Crew route expenses, which in 2011 was 2.2b. These are costs associated with keeping pilots, engineers and cabin crew in the air and in far off places. A prime area of cost cutting.

http://investinginafrica..._Annual_Report_2011.pdf

If you don't believe, think Safcon outsourcing customer service

My head is spinning. If pilots too can be outsourced what then is the business of KQ?

Are the pilots or the cabin crew the identity of KQ? When you fly how many times do you see the pilot? My take is that Cabin crews are the identity since they interact with the customers!