Kenya Airways takes back its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft from Turkish Airlines citing expiry of lease
Kenya Airways (KQ) now intends to deploy the long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet on the national carrier’s flagship route linking the Jomo Kenyatta International terminal of Nairobi with London Heathrow Airport in the UK effective from July 17.
Black News 
By Hilka Birns of CH-Aviation
Kenya Airways has taken back one Boeing 777-300ER aircraft from Turkish Airlines following the expiry of a long-term operating lease.
Kenya Airways (KQ) now intends to deploy the long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet on the national carrier’s flagship route linking the Jomo Kenyatta International terminal of Nairobi with London Heathrow Airport in the UK effective from July 17.
The Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) data shows that the TC-LKC (msn 42097) plane returned from Istanbul Airport to the Jomo Kenyatta International in Nairobi on the 7th of July 2026.
The Kenyan registration of the aircraft was 5Y-KZX before it was leased to the Turkish flag carrier on March 7, 2016, ch-aviation data reveals.
The aircraft had been in pre-redelivery maintenance at Istanbul Atatürk since January.
The Kenya Airways Group acting managing director and Chief Executive Officer, George Kamal, confirmed that re-registration of the Boeing aircraft was ongoing.
“It will fly the first few flights from Nairobi to Mombasa from the 12th to 16th of July, then London Heathrow from the 17th of July 17, 2026 onwards,” Kamal explained.
Kamal also confirmed that the airline was working on securing a backup sistership for the Boeing B777.
The airline plans to deploy the B777 plane on the route four-times weekly, partially replacing the Boeing 787-8 type which is currently operating the route.
The 400-seater TK-LKC is one of three B777-300ERs that Kenya Airways added in 2013-2014.
The Kenyan National carrier retired all three aircraft in January 2016 after determining that they were too large for its operational requirements.
All three were subsequently transferred to Turkish Airlines, with the other two remaining on lease.
The Kenya Airways CEO Kamal also confirmed that all of the airline’s nine Boeing 787s are expected to be back in service by the end of 2027.
Two of its B787s have been grounded since late 2024 due to engine maintenance shortages and global supply chain issues, while a third is undergoing scheduled 12-year major maintenance, the first being done internally.
Kenya Airways received its first Boeing 777-300ER in October 2013 as part of the company’s strategic expansion plan, known as Project Mawingu.
However, this aircraft was the largest in the airline’s fleet, configured to carry 400 passengers—28 in Premier World and 372 in Economy class and dspite playing a significant role in the airline’s long-haul operations, they were later phased out by 2016 due to financial challenges.
