New airport hopes to ease congestion at Wilson

A non-commercial airport that aims to help decongest Nairobi’s Wilson Airport is set to be opened in Kajiado on Saturday.

The Kenya Association of Air Operators chief executive officer Col (Rtd) Eutychus Waithaka, and the Aero Club of East Africa chairman Harro Trempenau, say Orly Airpark, at Olooloitikosh, would mainly be a recreational centre air operators as well as training place for pilots.

“We aim to offload traffic at Wilson. Orly is not a commercial entity. We are not in competition with neither anybody... Neither Wilson nor Jomo Kenyatta (International Airport),” Mr Trempenau told the Nation at the ACEA headquarters at Wilson.

Mr Trempenau an airpark was a residential area for pilots and “aviation enthusiast.” It is a non-commercial airport used mainly for training or recreation by members.

Mr Trempenau, said the Kenya School of Flying, whose director Martin Ririani, is a co-founder of the Orly Airpark, would be the first to relocate some of its operations there in December.

Orly Airpark, on a 235-acre land off Kiserian-Isinya Road, was founded in 2000 by ACEA members. Each of the 50 members is entitled to a residential plot within the airpark.

Col Waithaka and Mr Trempenau said the airpark, 50 km from Wilson, is the first in the country and second in Africa after South Africa’s Wonderboom Airport. Internal security minister George Saitoti is expected to be the chief guest.