By JAMES ANYANZWA

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US plane maker Boeing and Kenya Airways (KQ) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for landing gear exchange, that will see the national carrier lower its inventory and costs, and maintain aircraft reliability.

Under the programme, Boeing will manage repairs and overhaul processes for KQ 787 fleet, which includes the engineering and technical aspects.

The agreement was signed on Wednesday at the 2022 MRO Middle East Exhibition, an aviation industry event for maintenance, repair, and overhaul.

As part of the agreement, Boeing will make available nine landing gear shipsets to KQ, enabling more efficient and cost-effective maintenance operations.

KQ technical director Evans Kihara said the programme would enable the airline to safeguard operations and minimise disruptions.

“This allows us to plan our cash outflow in advance, and to work with Boeing to ensure that our network schedule integrity is achieved, bringing the much-desired predictability to our guests,” he added.

“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.

The loss-making carrier has a fleet of nine 787 Dreamliner planes of its 36 aircraft, 19 of which it owns, while leasing 17.