KAA seeks Sh29bn for airports upgrade
What you need to know:
- Regulator plans to improve capacity at JKIA and also boost its management systems.
The Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) is seeking a Sh29 billion loan from the World Bank to finance the upgrade of the country’s airports.
Under an initiative dubbed Kenya Aviation Modernisation Project, KAA said yesterday it plans to use part of the proceeds to improve passenger terminal capacity at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi as well as boost its management systems.
The move comes nearly a year after KAA scrapped plans for a new terminal building at Nairobi’s main airport due to what it then termed as “financial pressures and excess capacity caused by recent upgrades to existing facilities”.
China’s Anhui Construction and China National Aero-Technology International Engineering Corporation (Catic) had been selected to build the terminal, which was expected to handle 20 million passengers a year.
President Uhuru Kenyatta had launched the Sh56 billion terminal project JKIA in December 2013. He would later defend the decision to terminate the Green Field terminal project at JKIA in the face of criticism.
“We established that with all the additional facilities we had done, we had developed an airport that was capable of handling eight million passengers per year. It now doesn’t therefore make sense that (sic) if you have already established the numbers you were looking for, why do we need to spend another Sh50 billion to achieve what we have already achieved.
“That is the simple logic that we are using. Let us now focus on roads and other areas that that money would be better utilised and spent,” he said last April.
The government has applied for the $285 million (Sh29 billion) World Bank financing on behalf of the KAA.
KAA said under the programme it plans to enhance security at major airports around the country under its management by designing and installing integrated ICT systems.
“The funds will also be used for strengthening the aviation oversight capacity by enhancing the management information systems and installing communication equipment to integrate operations throughout the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority,” said KAA.
Kenya has in the past few years embarked on airport modernisation projects to increase the country’s ability to handle more traffic every year.
Newly appointed KAA managing director, Norwegian Jonny Andersen, has highlighted the urgency to expand airport infrastructure.
“…we need to expand this facility (JKIA) and I am happy that plans are already under way to call for tenders, this or next month, for the construction of the second landing path,” Mr Andersen said in a recent interview with the Business Daily.
“We are planning to start the works before the end of 2017. The second runway will increase the movement of aircraft from 25 to 45 per hour and do away with the delays occasioned by a single runway.”
