Planes registered in Kenya will now be inspected for airworthiness every two years, instead of annually, amid a biting shortage of inspectors as the number of locally registered aircraft grew rapidly.
The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) has spaced out mandatory aircraft inspections as a strategy to cope with the staff shortage, extended validity period of certificates of airworthiness issued to aircraft operators to two years from the current one year, lengthening the mandatory checks intervals.
This is part of major regulatory changes in the industry, aimed at complying with global standards, and is expected to reduce the workload for airworthiness inspectors in the country, as well as the compliance burden for air operators.
It comes as the number of operational aircraft is projected to hit 1,000 by 2030, after growing by about 7.6 percent over the last five years, from 735 in 2020 to 782 in 2025.
Over the same period, the number of airworthiness inspectors working for KCAA dropped from 26 to 21, causing an increased workload on the workers amidst a projected boom in aircraft registrations.
‘The current regulation was put in place when we had about 200 aircraft registered in Kenya; now we are approaching 1,000, the annual checks are no longer tenable,’ said a senior inspector who asked not to be named as they are not authorised to speak to the press.
The regulator engaged aviation stakeholders on the new regulations on Monday, and the majority agreed that the extension was both necessary and long overdue to ease the burden of compliance in the heavily regulated industry. The new laws are expected to take effect from March next year.
Airworthiness is the condition of an aircraft being safe and fit to fly. An airworthiness certificate is the official document issued by KCAA confirming that a plane meets those requirements after an inspector conducts thorough checks on it. Without a valid certificate, an aircraft cannot legally operate, leading to grounding.
A single airworthiness check for the certificate renewal can take several days and up to two weeks for commercial airplanes, highlighting the intensity of work that goes into the activity.
Air operators attending the engagement with the regulator said they have at times had to ground planes while awaiting regulatory checks, as a plane cannot fly without the certificate, straining their operations.
KCAA said the extension of the certificate’s validity will speed up inspection and clearing of planes to fly, as the number of locally registered aircraft.
The change, however, will not impact the safety of Kenyan-registered airplanes as operators will still be required to do regular maintenance and checks before flying and the regulator will continue to conduct impromptu checks to ensure compliance.
It will also not impact compliance costs or revenues for the regulator, as the inspection fees will be doubled to cater for the extended validity period.
Currently, the regulator charges between Sh3,000 and Sh35,000 for the certificate depending on the aircraft, and an extra Sh2,700 for every additional 500 kilogrammes above the maximum aircraft take-off mass. With the doubling of the validity period, this amount is expected to be twice the inspector said.
The regulator says the move will also standardise Kenya’s practice with international standards. The International Civil Aviation Organisation requires the airworthiness certificates to be renewed every two years.
The move comes at a time when Kenyan airlines, including the national flag carrier, face record fleet grounding, occasioned in part by the global shortage of airline parts.
Currently, there are about 17 grounded planes in Kenya, including 11 in Kenya Airways’ fleet.