Kenya Airways (KQ) has today resumed operations following yesterday’s stalemate owing to a staff strike action that forced the national carrier to cancel flights and delay several others.

According to a press statement issued on Sunday evening, 67 flights took off yesterday evening from 4pm.

KQ also announced that scheduled evening flights will leave as planned and assured customers that there will be no more flight delays or cancellations.

“Kenya Airways wishes to announce that operation have now returned to normalcy. Our evening flights are expected to operate as planned,” KQ said.

Dozens of passengers were inconvenienced yesterday, following delays and a cancellation of their flights. At least five flights were cancelled and one delayed

The cancelled flights include KQ 600 to Mombasa, KQ 432 to Kilimanjaro, KQ 350 to Juba, KQ 706 to Lusaka/Harare and KQ 740 to Maputo. Flight KQ 782 to Livingston/Capetown was delayed.

In the statement, KQ announced that all affected customers had been taken care off and apologized for the inconvenience caused.

“All guests inconvenienced earlier have been taken care of by rebooking them on later flights or alternative routing,” the airline said, “We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to guests. We will keep you updated on any changes.” KQ said in the statement.

Kenya Airlines Pilots Association issue strike notice

Last week, members of the Kenya Airlines Pilots Association (KALPA issued a seven-day strike notice demanding an overhaul of the Kenya Airways (KQ) management on grounds that they do not have  confidence in their ongoing turnaround strategy.

Even though KQ has obtained a court order blocking the strike, the association has threatened that if Board Chairman Dennis Awori and CEO Mbuvi Ngunze don’t resign their members will boycott work tomorrow from 5am.

KALPA has also criticized the government for the move to block their strike and trying to paint the body in bad light by questioning the pilot’s authority in controlling the management of the airline and also for blaming them for a Sh 200 million loss KQ allegedly incurred owing to the April industrial action.

“The attempt to paint Kenya Airways pilots in a negative light by stating that the airline lost Sh200 million as a result of the April industrial action is indeed a diversionary tactic. It must be highlighted that Kenya Airways has lost Sh52 billion in the last two years mainly through bad decision making and corruption,” said KALPA Secretary General Captain Paul Gichinga.

If the pilots down their tools as threatened, the move will be a major setback for the national airline, which has been struggling to stay afloat following the shocking July announcement that KQ recorded a Sh26.2 billion net loss for the year ended March 2016.