Kenya’s national airline seeks some control of biggest airport

Kenya Airways, the state-controlled national carrier, wants to gain some control of the capital’s biggest airport even as authorities discuss concessions with private players to run the regional aviation hub. The Kenyan government has received a privately initiated proposal from a unit of Adani Group to revamp the airport first built in precolonial Kenya, which critics of the deal say would grant it a 30-year concession for an investment of just $1.85b. Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta airport, or JKIA, requires “urgent” expansion due to increasing passenger and cargo traffic, with current numbers exceeding its design capacity, the carrier’s CEO Allan Kilavuka, said. “Right now, we don’t have control of that, it becomes very difficult for us, because we have to rely on others. So we would desire some sort of control,” he said. By 2054, JKIA is expected to handle 32m passengers and nearly 1m tons of cargo, compared to 8.6m passengers and 367,000 tons of cargo currently. The facility is designed to cater for 2m passengers and the government estimates development of a new passenger terminal, second runway and refurbishment of existing facilities is will cost $2b. Kenya’s running against time to stay ahead of competitors in the region. Ethiopia’s biggest airport has overtaken JKIA in passenger numbers and authorities there are planning on spending more than $5b for an even larger facility to support what’s now the biggest airline in Africa. Rwanda too is building a new airport outside Kigali with the help of Qatar, also with an eye on regional traffic.<br/>