The start of the new decade showed an improvement to the company finances.
An analysis of the cost per seat-mile shows:
The Doves could not entirely replace the Dragon Rapides, as they could not operate safely from some of the smaller airfields. Therefore it was decoded to sell the still new Doves and buy more Lodestars. The Doves were sold in 1950 and 1951.
The Lodestar fleet eventually totalled fifteen, following the purchase of three from the Congo in 1949 and seven from South African Airways in 1950.
The Dakotas soon showed their superiority over the Lodestars and operated services to Nyasaland (now Malawi) and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) as well as South Africa. In 1952 EAAC purchased six ex-RAF Dakotas, which were fitted with twenty-eight seats and new radio equipment by Field Aviation Services Ltd before delivery to Nairobi. The last Lodestar service was flown in February 1953.
In February 1952 East African Airways became the first commercial airline to cary a reigning British monarch. The death of King George VI occurred when Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh were in Kenya on their royal tour and arrangements were swiftly made to cancel the remainder of the tour and for the royal couple to return to England by air. The new queen and consort flew in Dakota VP-KHK (named ‘Sagana’ after the royal lodge), piloted by Wing Commander A. N. Francombe, MBE, DSO, from Nanyuki to Entebbe where they boarded a BOAC Argonaut (Canadair) for London.
In 1953, three Macchi MB 320s were purchased to replace the Dragon Rapides on services around Lake Victoria. Unfortunately they were far from successful. The delivery flight of the first machine was interrupted by a wheels-up landing in the Sudan desert about 100 miles south of Khartoum when an oil pipe burst and the starboard engine failed. This event was followed by three similar incidents, all involving wheels-up landings, and after a relatively short time all three aircraft were sold locally.
In 1953 the Kenya government was considering the introduction of shorter tours of duty for government officials, using air transport for leave passages, and accordingly requested EAAC to examine the possibility of providing a service to the UK at a lower fare than BOAC and South African Airways (SAA). Eventually however, an agreement was concluded with BOAC under which the government leave traffic would be shared between EAAC and BOAC on an equal basis and EAAC would initially lease, and subsequently purchase, four Canadair C-4 Argonauts. This was hardly the aircraft that EAAC wanted. They preferred the Convair 440 but BOAC who had a controlling interest in EAAC wanted to find homes for their ageing Canadairs so overruled. The Canadairs were old (1949), noisy and generally not very highly regarded. Aden Airways (a BOAC Associated Company) also had Canadairs foisted upon them by the parent company! The original delivery date for the first aircraft was 31st March 1956 but this was subsequently revised to October 1956 with a further two aircraft in 1957 and the final one in 1958. In September 1957 the Argonauts (or Canadairs as they were known to EAAC) were introduced on a new service to India and Pakistan via Aden. This was in addition to a once-a-week services to London, Johannesburg via Blantyre and also Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Later the service to India and Pakistan was increased to twice-weekly. By 1958 East African realised that if it was to succeed as an international airline, it would have to purchase more modern aircraft to compete with the Britannias and Comets of BOAC. A bold decision at the time for a small airline led to the order for two Comet 4s, to be delivered in July and September 1960. Meanwhile the last Canadair to be delivered (VR-KOT) was returned to BOAC later in 1958. It was decided that pending the delivery of the Comets, Britannias would be leased from BOAC and British United for the London route.