Boeing will perform landing gear exchange, repair and overhaul services on Kenya Airways PLC (KQ) after they announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) during the 2022 MRO Middle East exhibition, which is the leading aviation industry event for Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul in the region.
KQ will use the Boeing Service Center Repair Network for quick, reliable access to landing gear exchanges, repair and replacement around the world for its Boeing 787 fleet 787 fleet, enabling more efficient and cost-effective maintenance operations and greatly reducing maintenance time.
“The customer is key in all our operations and this program will help us continue to offer world class customer service as it will safeguard our operations and minimize disruptions to our guests,” commented Evans Kihara, Technical Director at Kenya Airways.
“This allows us to plan our cash outflow in advance and at the same time enables us to work with Boeing to ensure that our network schedule integrity is achieved, bringing the much-desired predictability to our guests.”
The Boeing 787 landing gear exchange program simplifies the contracting, scheduling and management of the landing gear overhaul process. Through this program, air carriers can quickly exchange landing gears that need to be repaired or overhauled with a replacement set of certified landing gear from a dedicated resource pool maintained by Boeing.
By managing all parts, engineering and technical aspects of the program, Kenya Airways will have the flexible exchange solution they need to repair and replace landing gear while lowering inventory costs. Boeing will also provide access to loaner landing gear shipsets and parts during unexpected AOG situations.
“This is just one example of how we can bring value to our customers through solutions tailored to meet their specific needs – in this case, an increase in Kenya Airways’ 787 maintenance efficiency and cost effectiveness.” said Anbessie Yitbarek, vice president of Commercial Services Sales and Marketing for Boeing.
“We look forward to implementing these programs with Kenya Airways, and continuing our long-standing relationship for many years to come.”
Kenya Airways is the latest customer to take advantage of the Boeing’s Landing Gear Overhaul and Exchange Program. Boeing coordinates with airlines and global component repair and overhaul suppliers to promptly return airplanes to service.
Meanwhile, the Kenyan legacy carrier plans to bring aerial ridesharing to the country as soon as 2025 according to the company’s chief, speaking on Thursday, February 24.
“We are working on a future, 2025 onwards to see how we can support urban mobility,” Allan Kivaluka, KQ’s group CEO stated.
The new electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft uses electric power to hover, take off, and land vertically and came about thanks to major advances in electric propulsion and the growing need for new vehicles for urban air mobility.
Aiming for 2025 launch
Just as technology has underpinned economic growth for decades now, the future of flying electric taxis is expected to revolutionize transportation while transforming urban mobility into a greener, zero-emissions world.
The introduction of the flying taxis follows a deal penned between Kenya Airways through its innovation subsidiary, Fahari Innovation hub and Brazilian plane maker, Embraer with the eVTOL now slated for 2025 launch.
Right now, the country especially is grappling with monumental traffic jams that lead to loss of billions of shillings in revenue.
By the midpart of the decade, some of Kenyans will be zipping around in zero-emissions air taxis, bouncing from city to city in minutes, while others will be stuck on the ground in traffic.
