Profitability in African aviation is often framed around familiar pressures: fuel prices, aircraft leases, maintenance costs, airport charges, thin margins and markets that rarely behave predictably. At the AFRAA – African Airlines Association’s 14th Aviation Stakeholders Convention in Johannesburg, Ira Kaviti, Chief Financial Officer of Jambojet, brought the discussion down to the operating detail that determines whether an airline can turn demand into sustainable financial performance.
Speaking during the panel session, “Beyond Cost Cutting: Structural Profitability”, Kaviti outlined how the Kenyan low-cost carrier has worked its way back to profit after the disruption of COVID-19. His remarks highlighted the operational disciplines that underpinned Jambojet’s recovery.
The airline returned to profitability in 2024 and, in 2025, received AFRAA’s award for Most Improved Airline in Profitability. According to Kaviti, Jambojet recorded a turnaround of around US$49 million from the previous year’s loss to its 2024 profit. It was not the result of a single major intervention; rather, the recovery was driven by simplification, cash discipline, direct distribution, aircraft utilisation, fuel control and improved productivity.
Established by Kenya Airways 12 years ago, Jambojet was created to defend the group’s position in the low-cost segment and stimulate domestic air travel in Kenya. Its tagline, “Now you can fly”, reflected a market-building role as much as a commercial one. Kaviti said 45% of first-time flyers in Kenya have flown with Jambojet.
Jambojet has carried more than 10 million passengers since its launch. Its workforce now exceeds 600 people, with hubs in Nairobi and Mombasa and a network covering 11 destinations. It holds a 57% market share. Before the pandemic, the airline was still working to prove that the low-cost carrier model could be sustained in the African market.
COVID-19 placed the airline under severe pressure. Jambojet lost US$20 million during the pandemic, but avoided retrenchments after employees agreed to pay cuts, saving the airline US$7 million. The decision became an integral component of the airline’s recovery strategy, illustrating how employee engagement can significantly impact an airline’s capacity to endure a substantial financial crisis.
The post-pandemic period necessitated a formal financial restructuring. This involved renegotiating aircraft leases with lessors, a process that began in 2022/23 and was completed in 2025. The balance sheet restructuring, supported by Kenya Airways, is nearing completion. Additionally, Jambojet raised capital for the first time in 2024/25 and is currently in the process of raising capital for a second time.
The airline’s commercial model has benefited from the digital environment in which it was built. Kenya Airways had previously attempted to establish a low-cost airline through Flamingo, which collapsed. Jambojet entered the market under different conditions, particularly higher internet penetration and the widespread use of mobile money in Kenya. These factors shaped its approach to distribution and payment from the start.
Around 80% of Jambojet’s revenue is generated directly, while 99% of payments are made through electronic channels. Mobile money accounts for 57% of payments, cards for 21%, and other online transfer methods for 10%. This has supported a cash-led operating model, allowing the airline to fund growth for its first 11 years from working capital and internally generated funds, without borrowing.
Digital adoption is now moving deeper into the passenger journey. Online check-in adoption is currently around 40%, with uptake growing quickly over the past two years. The airline uses dynamic pricing and is working to enhance this through artificial intelligence. For a low-cost carrier, these systems influence distribution cost, revenue quality, payment speed and the ability to keep the operating structure lean.
Operational control has been another important part of the recovery. Three years ago, Jambojet implemented a fuel control and monitoring system to give operations teams better visibility of flight efficiency, elapsed time, fuel burn, savings and losses. The financial exposure attached to time is considerable. Kaviti noted that if every Jambojet aircraft, on every flight operated in a year, were delayed by one minute, the airline would lose around US$1 million. A 10-minute delay across the operation would represent around US$10 million.
Punctuality is both a customer service priority and a financial control for Jambojet. The airline has established an integrated operations control centre, bringing together the teams responsible for flight monitoring, station operations, maintenance and dispatch. Communication failures had previously contributed to delays, but consolidating these functions has helped improve on-time performance. Earlier this year, Cirium ranked Jambojet fifth globally for on-time performance.
Passenger communication sits within the same discipline. Disruption cannot always be avoided, but timely information gives passengers a better chance of adjusting their plans. For an airline selling time, communication during disruption becomes part of the product.
Jet fuel costs have risen by 97% during the current crisis, forcing the airline to optimise its schedule, reduce capacity by 10% and remove flights that fall below the first contribution threshold. These are flights that do not cover fuel, maintenance, insurance, reservation costs, parking and navigation fees. The immediate priority is to protect cash while creating room to increase fares again in the coming months.
Even with these interventions, the exposure remains substantial. Jambojet expects the fuel crisis to cost the airline 2 billion Kenyan shillings this year. Employee-led initiatives have identified measures that could reduce that impact by 55%, equivalent to around 1.2 billion Kenyan shillings. The employee alignment that helped the airline avoid retrenchments during COVID-19 is now being applied to a different kind of cost shock.
Jambojet operates as a productivity-based business, with employees tied to performance outcomes. Recovery initiatives have come from both frontline teams and management. In an airline with tight margins, culture cannot be separated from financial performance. It influences how quickly the business can respond when operating conditions change.
The airline has also kept its operating model deliberately simple. Turnaround standardisation, crew productivity, fleet commonality and direct distribution all support the same objective: producing more flying from available assets while keeping complexity under control.
Turnaround time shows how quickly small operational changes can affect revenue. Many African carriers operate through airports where daylight limitations restrict aircraft utilisation. Jambojet’s standard turnaround is 20 minutes, and the airline expects to operate 25,000 flights this year. Increasing that turnaround from 20 to 25 minutes would reduce the operation by 2,083 flights. At an 80% load factor, the lost revenue would be around US$24 million.
Those five minutes matter because low-cost airline economics depend on using aircraft efficiently within safe operating limits. Ground teams may prefer more time, but the commercial model depends on protecting utilisation. For Jambojet, the 20-minute turnaround is not only an operational target. It is a revenue protection measure.
Fleet commonality reduces another layer of complexity. Jambojet operates a single-type fleet of Q400 aircraft, limiting the cost and operational burden associated with parts, training, ground handling, customer service, revenue management and systems. A mixed fleet would increase costs across several functions, particularly in a market where fuel, charges and other operating expenses already put pressure on margins.
Crew productivity forms part of the same structure. The average Jambojet pilot operates 85 hours a month. At the same time, low-cost carriers often become training grounds for legacy airlines and Gulf carriers, with pilots moving on once they have accumulated the hours required for larger aircraft. Jambojet has adjusted to that cycle by attracting first officers with around 3,000 hours, who typically remain with the airline for about three and a half years before moving on.
Rather than treating pilot attrition only as a loss, the airline has built that reality into its operating model. It can attract pilots who understand the opportunity, while planning around the likelihood that some will leave once they reach the next stage of their careers.
Direct distribution completes the model. Most Jambojet sales are made online through its website or through agents connected by API channels, including agents beyond Kenya in Europe, America and Asia. The airline is also piloting sales through channels such as WhatsApp, reflecting the way younger passengers prefer to engage with service providers.
With an average customer age of 29, Jambojet is building more of the travel journey around self-service. Passengers want to book on mobile phones and laptops, check in online and manage more of the journey through the Jambojet app. For the airline, that shift reduces friction, lowers distribution costs and gives customers more control over their travel.
Jambojet’s return to profitability shows how much of airline performance sits inside the operating model. Demand matters, but it is not enough on its own. For a low-cost carrier working in a high-cost environment, margin is protected through direct cash collection, punctuality, fuel visibility, fleet simplicity, crew productivity, schedule discipline and staff participation.
For African carriers, the wider relevance is clear. Profitability is not achieved only by growing traffic or cutting costs. It depends on building an airline that is disciplined enough to keep complexity under control, connected enough to collect revenue efficiently and operationally focused enough to turn each flight into financial performance.
