In 1960 EAAC took delivery of the two Comets (VP-KPJ and VP-KPK), which were soon put into service. As a result the operating profit for 1960 soared from £40,000 in the previous year to an amazing £460,683.
During the year, a pool agreement was signed between EAAC, BOAC, CAA (Central African Airways) and SAA (South African Airways). Another significant event was the establishment of Seychelles-Kilimanjaro Air Transport (SKAT) as a wholly owned, non-IATA subsidiary of EAAC. Two Rapides (VP-KEF and VP-KNS) were transferred to the new company to operate the non-profitable services between Zanzibar, Tanga, Dar-es-Salaam and Pemba. The two remaining Rapides were sold for £30,000 each.
At the end of 1960 it was decided to order a further Comet, with a delivery date of April 1962. In early 1961, consideration was given to a Dakota replacement. The design choice was between the Avro 748, Handley-Page Herald and the Fokker Friendship. The latter was finally selected and three Series 200 Friendships were ordered, for delivery in October, November and December 1962. An option was taken on a fourth aircraft.
In July 1961 East African Airways Comets and Canadairs augmented the RAF Britannias, Beverleys and Hastings aircraft in an airlift of troops to Aden and Bahrein as a result of a crisis in Kuwait, when it was threatened by Iraq.
One of the Canadairs was lost in April 1962 when it crashed at Embakasi Airport while on crew training. The crew of three escaped unhurt but the captain urged the fire-crews to “let it burn”. Obviously not a well-loved aircraft!
After the delivery of the third Comet, the two surviving Canadairs were sold (after a period on lease to Aden Airways). The Comets now operated seven flights a week to London via Rome, two flights a week to Karachi and Bombay and two flights per week to Johannesburg. The first Friendship was delivered in November 1962 and the type quickly replaced Dakotas on several routes in early 1963. the Friendships were ideal for the task and the option on the fourth aircraft was confirmed.
The “winds of change” were now starting to be felt in Africa. Tanganyika was the first of the four territories to gain its independence in May 1961, followed by Uganda in 1962, while Kenya achieved internal self-government in August 1963 with full independence at the end of the year. The SAA service ceased in the same year due to a ban on landing rights by several African countries as a protest against apartheid. EAAC continued to fly twice-weekly flights (Comet to Johannesburg and a Friendship to Durban) until October. On 29th August a Dakota (VP-KJT) was burnt out in mysterious circumstances on the ground at Francistown shortly before it was due to fly twenty-eight refugees from Bechuanaland (now Botswana) to Tanganyika. As a result the existing pool arrangements came to an end. A new bilateral agreement was signed with BOAC. Other pool arrangements with Air India and Air France followed.
East African Airways leased a DC-7F from BOAC to operate a new weekly all-freight service between London and Nairobi, which was inaugurated on Friday October 4th 1963. The aircraft called at Cairo southbound and at Entebbe and Benina northbound. The service was licensed for the carriage of traffic between the UK and points in East Africa only.
Following independence of Kenya and Zanzibar in December 1963, the flags of the four nations was painted on the tails of the aircraft. However this quickly became three after a revolution in Zanzibar in 1964 and its merger with Tanganyika to become Tanzania.
The fourth Friendship entered service in January 1964 along with a replacement Dakota for the one lost at Francistown
In October 1964, the first four Africans went to the Airwork school at Perth for pilot training as one of the first long-term steps in the policy of Africanisation which followed independence. At the end of the year Alfred Vincent retired after sixteen years as Chairman of the Corporation and was superseded by Chief Abdullah Said Fundikira.
In January 1965 a committee was appointed to review the constitutional position of the Corporation as a result of independence. As a consequence of its deliberations regarding ownership, the fleet which had hitherto been registered entirely in Kenya, was apportioned as equally as possible between the three countries and re-registered accordingly. In addition, BOAC were asked to relinquish their interest in E.A.A.C. in return for assurances that the £11 million loan made by BOAC in 1959 would be redeemed by 1967-68. In actual fact this target was improved upon and the loan was redeemed by the end of 1966.
Early in 1965 another committee was set up to report on a Comet replacement and an initial list of nine possible types was reduced to three, the DC-8 Jet Trader, Boeing 707-320C and the Vickers Super VC10. The committee presented its recommendations in March in favour of the Super VC10 and a contract for three aircraft, worth with spares nearly £11 million, was signed with the British Aircraft Corporation. These aircraft differed from BOAC's Super VC10s by having a large loading door on the port side, giving access to a spacious freight compartment, and were designated Type 1154.
Following the application of experimental colour schemes to Dakotas 5Y-AAE and 5H-AAL, a new livery for the fleet was announced in October 1965. This featured the six basic colours of the flags of the three countries (red, yellow, green, blue white and black). The national flags were reproduced on the tail fin on a white disc superimposed on a twelve-pointed yellow "star" with the flag of the country of registration surmounting the other two. At the same time the word "Airways'' was dropped from the fuselage titling.
During 1966 the Comets achieved a peak utilisation of 11 hours per day before being replaced by Super VC10s. By the end of the year the three Comets had accumulated a total of 57,370 flying hours and had been supplemented by another machine leased from BOAC (5Y-ADD the former G-APDL).
One of the two Dragon Rapides operated by S.K.A.T. was lost when it was burnt out on the ground at Dar-es-Salaam in September and the de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter was selected to replace the survivor on the services from the mainland to Zanzibar, Pemba and Mafia. S.K.A.T. lost £12,383 on these unprofitable routes during the year, although it should be noted that all domestic fares and rates had been maintained constant for ten years.
The first Super VC10 (5X-UVA) was delivered on 30th September, followed by 5H-MMT in November, and these aircraft took over from Comets on the London- East Africa services before the end of the year. Tight scheduling during the first four months of Super VC10 operations resulted in a number of delays but the situation was relieved after the delivery of the third machine (5Y-ADA) in April the following year. The financing of the Super VC10s was on a leasing basis with a 20 per cent down payment and the balance repaid from revenue over seven years at quarterly intervals from the delivery date of each aircraft. The aircraft were registered to the British Aircraft Corporation until the end of the lease, when ownership was to be transferred to E.A.A.C. for a nominal fee.
In January 1967 East African Airways came of age and the event was well publicised by a set of four commemorative stamps issued by the joint postal authority of the three countries and which featured the Dragon Rapide (30c), Super VC10 (50c), Comet 4 (1/30) and F27 Friendship (2/50).
Only a month after the delivery of the third Super VC10 it was announced that a contract had been signed for another machine, with an option on a fifth. The order for two Twin Otters was increased to four and the first aircraft (5H-MNK) entered service on the offshore routes in July. The last Dragon Rapide (5H-AAN) was honourably retired in early 1968 after the arrival of the second Twin Otter (5H-MNR). Happily 5H-AAN was completely overhauled and sold with a large quantity of spares to a local operator with whom it was still flying in the 1970s - the sole remaining example of the type on the East African Register.
Super VC10s were introduced on the Eastern service to India and Pakistan towards the end of 1966 and the last Comet was operated on these routes in November 1967. The Comets were then used on the medium-haul routes within the African continent as well as on an inter-city service linking the three capitals. However, due to corrosion, an expensive modification programme had to be undertaken to prolong the life of these aircraft and one was returned to the manufacturer in November 1967, followed by the other two in 1968.
The three East African states signed the Treaty for East African Co-operation on 1st December 1967, which created an East African economic community and resulted in the former common services of airways, railways, harbours and post office being reconstituted. East African Airways Corporation thus became an institution of the community and a new board of directors was appointed.
During 1968 the other two Twin Otters were delivered and used on short-haul services and charter flights. A major change in the activities of S.K.A.T. took place when it ceased to operate the Zanzibar, Pemba, Tanga and Dar-es-Salaam services and instead operated long-haul charter flights with the Comets (subsequently transferred to the subsidiary) at non-I.A.T.A. fares.
Other developments included the extension of the Eastern service from Bombay to Hong Kong (with the ultimate intention of extending as far as Tokyo) and the introduction of a once-weekly call at Athens on the European route. Long-term Africanisation plans resulted in twenty-seven pilots completing basic flying training courses in Great Britain and the U.S.A. and joining the airline as cadet pilots, while seven African first officers were flying on the Friendship and Dakota services by the end of 1968.
The Dakota fleet was reduced from nine aircraft to six by sales to Zambia and Malawi and consideration was given in 1968 to the choice of a new type to augment the Friendships on the inter-city domestic routes and to replace the Comets on the African regional routes. Types reported to be under consideration were the BAC One-Eleven, Boeing 737 and McDonnell-Douglas DC-9.
The fourth VC10 (5X-UVJ) was delivered in April 1969 and resulted in an expansion of the international network to include Copenhagen and Bangkok as well as increased calls at Frankfurt, Paris, Rome and Hong Kong. Despite increased activity in the charter field by S.K.A.T. (supplementing Comets with Super VC10s chartered from E.A.A.) the effects of other non-scheduled operators resulted in a low growth rate in E.A.A.C.'s passenger traffic. The addition of the fourth Super VC10 provided a large increase in capacity and the seat load factor fell from 47.2 per cent in 1968 to 41.5 per cent. These factors combined with the rescinding of the increases in domestic fares and rates introduced in 1968, led to a disappointing financial result in 1969.
By the end of the decade, the Comets were showing their age. They were now un-economic on the short haul routes and lacked both range and capacity for the long haul. During November 1969 two McDonnell-Douglas DC-9-15s were leased from the manufacturer pending a decision on the Comet replacement. The first arrived under mysterious circumstances at Nairobi as no one (except the chairman Chief Fundikira) knew of this decision. With no training and no way of accepting the new aircraft into service the leasing contract was abruptly terminated before the second aircraft (due in February) had arrived. The terms of the leasing arrangement were not made public at the time. The first two Comets (5H-AAF and 5X-AAO) were withdrawn from service at that time because of corrosion and, following the cancellation of the DC-9 leasing, arrangements were made to lease a Comet 4 from Dan-Air to operate the Comet services in conjunction with 5Y-AAA. In view of the urgency of the situation 5Y-ALD was delivered as a stop-gap on 9th January, retaining most of its Dan-Air colour scheme. It was returned to Dan-Air in March after 5Y-ALF had been suitably prepared and repainted in full E.A.A. livery.