A Kenyan Airways plane comes for landing at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi

Kenya Airways reported on Monday its first half-year profit in more than a decade, helped by rising passenger numbers and said it was hopeful it could break even for the full year.

The airline made a profit after tax of 513 million Kenyan shillings ($4 million) for January to June, overturning a 21.7 billion shilling loss in the first half of 2023.

Chief Executive Allan Kilavuka told a briefing the company was seeking to finalise negotiations with a strategic equity investor, without giving details. One of Africa’s three biggest airlines, Kenya Airways slid into insolvency in 2018 after an expansion drive left it with hundreds of millions of dollars in debt.

The collapse in international travel during the Covid-19 pandemic, combined with a sharp weakening of the Kenyan shilling and higher interest rates made it more difficult to service that debt. The airline has been in the red since 2013.

Kilavuka said the first-half results were a milestone and he was “reasonably confident” Kenya Airways would break even for 2024 as a whole. The airline’s revenue rose by 22 per cent in the first half, he said, helped by a 10 per cent rise in passenger numbers.

A stronger Kenyan shilling following a rally earlier in the year when the government successfully sold a new international bond to avoid defaulting on another bond due in June also helped.

“The Kenya shilling has significantly strengthened against the US dollar … so obviously that has helped us to reduce the (foreign exchange losses),” Kilavuka said.

• A Reuters report