The Kenyan government plans to modernize and break ground on the construction of a new terminal at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to begin in January next year, as it seeks to make it competitive regionally. The Chairman of the Kenya Airport Authority (KAA), Caleb Kositany said the government will soon float a tender for the construction of the terminal to increase the capacity of the airport as it will reduce congestion at Kenya’s main port of entry and exit.
However, Kositany stated that the agency is yet to make projections on the exact cost of the project. “We will be breaking ground on a new terminal in January next year to boost the capacity of JKIA to handle more passengers,” said Mr Kositany when he received the maiden ASKY Airlines flight to Nairobi from Lome in Togo. he also noted that the new facility will reinforce JKIA’s status as Africa’s premier hub and gateway into East and Central Africa.
The airline will be flying four times a week between the two nations and Its expansion to Kenya now provides travelers with connecting flights to Abidjan, Abuja, Accra, Bamako, Bangui, Bissau, and Beirut. Others are Brazzaville, Conakry, Cotonou, Dakar, Douala, Freetown, Kinshasa, Lagos, Libreville, Monrovia, N’Djamena, Niamey, Ouagadougou, Pointe Noire, & Yaounde.
JKIA is the hub of national carrier Kenya Airways (KQ), its subsidiary Jambojet and other airlines. The airport was built in 1978 to serve just over two million passengers annually and has two terminals: Terminal 1 (1A, 1B, 1C, 1D and 1E) and Terminal 2. However, throughout the years, the number of people utilizing the airport has drastically increased, necessitating an increase in capacity. There are currently 6.5 million passengers served yearly, and more passengers are anticipated in the upcoming years.
Mr. Kositany said, “We will be issuing an open tender soon to build the terminal. It will be most likely a PPP (public-private partnership) project or whatever proposal we get that will be friendly and help us deliver the project as soon as we can. As a board we want to do it as quickly as we possibly can and within the law.”
He noted that the airport is heavily congested especially during peak hours, adding that the construction of the new terminal will also include more parking space for customers.
Uhuru Kenyatta, the former president, had started work on the $650 million greenfield terminal at JKIA in December 2013. Following estimates that the project would cost more than $1 billion, it was later discontinued. Its significance was also diminished as a result of Terminal 1A’s capacity being enhanced after reconstruction.
In an effort to improve airport security screening, KAA recently performed upgrades to terminals 1B and C at a cost of Sh936 million.