Five airlines risk sanctions from KCAA for using their aircraft to transport cargo, whereas they are licensed to carry only passengers.
The suspended airlines are: Skyward Express, Buff Air, Capital Airlines Limited, Bush Air and Rudufu.
Transport secretary James Macharia said passenger airlines that violate their licences will be dealt with firmly.
This was revealed after a team of investigators had been deployed to probe claims some aircraft operators at Wilson and Jomo Kenyatta International airports violate cargo carriage rules. There has been concern about laxity in enforcing regulations. This is now of particular importance as the country wants to maintain its Category I status for which it was recently certified. It is feared that violation of regulations by airlines might affect the country’s quest for direct flights between the Kenya and USA. Kenya went to the extent of amending its Civil Aviation Act to achieve the Category I status.
Kenya received category one status in 2016 a move that would allow airlines that have been certified by the US aviation regulator to fly directly to USA.
Carrying passengers and cargo in itself is not unheard of. Passenger and Cargo aircraft differ substantially. Freighters typically have large cargo doors. They also usually have rollers to allow for easy sliding of the cargo.
Combi aircraft can be used to carry either passengers as an airliner or cargo as a freighter. Some have partition in the passenger cabin to allow both uses at the same time in a mixed passenger/freight combination.
It is not unknown for airlines to convert aircraft from passenger to cargo and vice versa (Quick Change). Such aircraft have an additional freight door, strengthened floor and floor beams. QC aircraft may have a roller-bearing floor for palletised galley and seating and/or cargo to allow much faster changeovers (30 minutes). Boeing 727-100 QC, 737 and A-320 have all had Quick Change versions.
Quick Change aircraft are popular in some countries. They offer definite advantages and flexibility in some markets (routes). The allow airlines to maximise use of the assets by extending utilisation. Quick Change aircraft allow entire ‘pallets’ of chairs to be exchanged for cargo. This makes it impractical to have an inflight entertainment system. Quick Change aircraft offer interesting logistical challenges. Advantages are that they allow the operator to tailor the configuration to the freight or pax on the move. However the rotations have to work perfectly, or he may end up with seats in one location, and the aeroplane in another!