No landing at JKIA as flights redirected due to power failure
Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport was again closed in less than 36 hours due to another power failure.
Flights were on Monday evening being redirected to other airports including Mombasa, Entebbe and Kigali.
When contacted by Nation, Kenya Airways Chief Operating Officer Bram Stellar confirmed that flights are being redirected to other airports.
"The airport is closed. It is another power failure. It is a crisis I tell you," said a dejected Mr Stellar.
Mr Stellar said the crisis has cost Kenya Airways immensely as the airline has been forced to keep crew and passengers heading to Far East and other destinations in hotels.
"This is a big mess to our economy," Stellar told nation.
Kenya Power Corporate Communications officer Migwi Theuri said Kenya power is not to blame but the Airport's internal circuit system.
"We supply power to a sub-station at the airport and we do not manage their internal cabling. There was a problem with their circuit that led to a circuit break at the sub station," explained Theuri.
Theuri said normalcy returned after the circuit problem was resolved.
Kenya Airways International flights are among those affected as they are being redirected to Entebbe, Kigali and Mombasa airports.
The National carrier managing director and group CEO Titus Naikuni on Sunday disclosed that the disruption was occasioned by prolonged power outage at JKIA forcing the airline to divert its early morning flights to Moi International airport in Mombasa, Kigali international airport in Rwanda and Entebbe international airport in Uganda.
Mr Naikuni regretted the incident that had led to a major inconvenience to customers and said that the airline would engage with the Kenya Airports Authority and other key stakeholders to ensure that such disruptions become a thing of the past.
With the situation having repeated Mr Naikuni will have it rough reassuring KQ customers that the airline's flight operations are reliable.
The power outages are definitely tainting Kenya's image globally as JKIA is a key connection airport in africa.
Crisis started Sunday
Kenya Airports Authority managing director Mr Stephen Gichuki confirmed on Sunday that at 3.30am on Sunday JKIA experienced interruption of power on the main power supply lines.
Attempts to reach him for a comment on Monday were unfruitful.
"Preliminary investigations show that during the changeover to generator back-up power, an earth fault occurred," said Mr Gichuki on Sunday.
It took engineers from Kenya Airports Authority and Kenya Power to restore normal operations at the airport and by 5.30am KAA deployed mobile emergency runway lights at JKIA and landing of flights resumed.
He also confirmed that the fourteen flights that had been diverted to Moi International airport in Mombasa, Kigali international airport in Rwanda, Entebbe international airport in Uganda and Julius Nyerere international airport in Tanzania will land at JKIA.
