Kenya Airways pilots returned to work on Wednesday, after a court ordered them to end their days-long strike which had led to hundreds of flight cancellations and stranded thousands of passengers.
The strike, which began on Saturday, exacerbated the woes facing the troubled national carrier, which has vowed to โdo everything possible to return to normalcy in the shortest timeโ.
โThe strike is off, we are back to work,โ a spokesperson for the Kenya Airline Pilots Association (KALPA) told AFP Wednesday, hours after a Nairobi court ordered the union to end the walkout.
Kenya Airways said that it expected to be up to 50 percent of normal operations by Thursday, rising to 70 percent by Friday and operating normally by November 12.
Officials at Nairobiโs Jomo Kenyatta International Airport said the airline was still struggling to clear the backlog from earlier flight cancellations.
โWe have had several KQ flights on schedule today take off after the pilots resumed work,โ an official at the Kenya Airports Authority told AFP, using the shorthand airline code.
โThings are getting back to normal,โ he said.
The airline said it was โdoing everything possible to return to normal scheduled operations within the shortest possible timeโ.
โOver 5,000 of the 12,000 disrupted passengers have been upliftedโ, it said in a Wednesday statement.
The dispute has added to the challenges facing Kenyaโs recently elected President William Ruto, who has inherited a country already battling a cost-of-living crisis and a record drought.
Passengers at the airport told AFP they were cautiously optimistic after being forced to reschedule their travel plans because of the strike.
Peace Wamala told AFP she was hoping to finally make it to the Ugandan town of Entebbe following a cancellation on Tuesday.
She said she didnโt yet know โthe exact time for our flight but we have been assured we will fly todayโ.
Another passenger, who only gave her name as Londiwe, told AFP: โI have had the worst experience on KQ during the strike for the past two days, but finally I have been told I will fly this evening.
โSo I am just hoping the pilots will not go on strike again.โ
KALPA launched the walkout in defiance of a court injunction issued last week against the strike, prompting the government to threaten the pilots with disciplinary action.
โ โNo disciplinary actionโ โ
Kenya Airways, which is part-owned by the government as well as Air France-KLM, is one of the biggest in Africa, connecting multiple countries to Europe and Asia.
But it has been running losses for years, despite the government pumping in millions of dollars to keep it afloat.
In a breakthrough for the beleaguered airline, Justice Anna Mwaure on Tuesday ordered KALPA members to resume their duties โunconditionallyโ by 6:00 am (0300 GMT) Wednesday.
Mwaure also ordered the airlineโs management to allow the pilots โto perform their duties without harassing them or intimidating them and especially by not taking any disciplinary action against any of themโ.
Transport Minister Kipchumba Murkomen had urged the pilots and the airlineโs management to obey the court order.
โIn the past three days, this strike has disrupted travel plans for over 12,000 customersโฆ forced the cancellation of over 300 flights, and affected 3,500 other employees who were not part of it,โ he said.
The protesting pilots, who make up 10 percent of the airlineโs total workforce, are pressing for the reinstatement of contributions to a provident fund and payment of all salaries stopped during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a statement released Tuesday, the airlineโs CEO Allan Kilavuka said: โWe commit to complying with the courtโs directions.โ
The airline and the government have accused the union of engaging in โeconomic sabotageโ, with Kenya Airways warning that the strike would lead to losses estimated at $2.5 million per day.
The airline was founded in 1977 following the demise of East African Airways, and flies more than four million passengers to 42 destinations annually.
It has been operating in large part thanks to state bailouts following years of losses.
