Kenya Airways' staff retrenchment plan set to start early this month, affecting 600 employees, has been postponed to pave the way for further consultation with workers' unions reports the Star.

Announcing the planned staff rationalisation programme on March 31, the national carrier had said the exercise would cover unionised and non-unionised employees.

"We intend to commence the rationalisation by the beginning of May 2016," KQ had said in the March 31 statement.

However, the company, which recently suffered flight disruptions due to a strike by its pilots, said the plan to retrench some employees has been deferred.

"The exercise will go on but there has been a slight delay as we finish our consultation will all parties involved," the airline said on Monday.

The job cuts are part of a turnaround programme – Operation Pride – that aims to improve the airline's profitability and deliver more than $200 million (Sh20 billion) of value in cost savings.

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