Jomo Kenyatta International Airport

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{| class="infobox bordered" style="width: 220px; font-size: 95%;" |- ! colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background-color: #4682B4; color: white;" |Jomo Kenyatta International Airport |- |align="center" colspan="4"|

Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, formerly called Nairobi International Airport is one of Kenya's large aviation facilities and the country's busiest international airport.

Located in Nairobi, Kenya, the airport is named after the former Kenyan leader Jomo Kenyatta. Until the 1970s the airport was named "Embakasi", reflecting the area on the outskirts of the city where it is located.

The airport is the main hub of Kenya Airways. The latest airline to start flying to the airport is Qatar Airways.

Jomo Kenyatta airport is served by one runway 06/24, and is fully ILS-equipped. The modern airport is served by a terminal building constructed in the 1970s. The old "Embakasi" terminal, now used for cargo and for a Kenya Air Force training facility, was constructed before the 1960s.

In 2004, the airport served 3,999,711 passengers (+15.9% vs. '03).

Contents

1 History
2 Terminal
3 Future Expansion
4 Airlines
5 Accidents
6 External links

History

The airport was opened in May 1958 [link].

Terminal

Jomo Kenyatta International Airport’s terminal has three units that cater for both arrivals and departures. Unit 1 and 2 are mainly used for international flights whereas unit 3 is mainly used for domestic flights.

Departing passengers check-in through unit 1 and 2 depending on their destinations. Both units have airline check-in counters that operate on a CUTE system, and immigration desks at the ground floor where passengers are cleared before they proceed to the departure lounge in the first floor via escalators or lifts. There are eight gates at the departures used to get in to the aircraft via boarding bridges. Arriving international passengers come in through the same gates into the a concourse which leads them to immigration counters at the first floor before coming to the baggage hall situated in the ground floor. The baggage hall is well served with baggage conveyor belts.

Banking facilities, taxis, car hire, tour operators and hotel booking offices are conveniently situated at the arrivals. Scheduled bus service to and from town center is available at unit 1 and 2 bus stops.

Simba restaurant is situated in the 5th floor of the main central building. There is a cafeteria operated by Home Park in unit 1, restaurant and pub in unit 2, cafeteria and snack bar in unit 3 and international arrival hall – all operated by NAS. Beverage and soft drink vending machines are strategically placed in each unit.

Information desks manned by customer care officers, are strategically placed in all the units and at the arrival hall. Flight information display systems (FIDS) and signage helps the passenger find his/her way around the airport.

Future Expansion

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On the 14th October 2005, the Kenya Airports Authority announced their plans to expand Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Over the next two years, the authority announced that it would improve airport facilities across Kenya, especially at Nairobi.

The expansion project was prompted as Jomo Kenyatta annual passenger flow topped 4 million, as the airport was only constructed to handel 2.5 million passengers.

In the expansion, the airport's size will be more than doubled, from 25,662 sq metres to 55,222 sq metres. Aircraft parking, which is currently constrained, will be increased from 200,000 square metres to over 300,000 square metres, and additional taxiways will be included. The arrivals and departures section would be fully separated, and the waiting area would be revamped.

The expansion would increase the airport's capacity to 9 million from 2.5 million. The project will cost the Kenya Airports Authority $100million. The World Bank will provide $10million.

It is currently being debated in government if Jomo Kenyatta Intl Airport should build a second runway. This followed an incident that closed the only operational runway for 1 day.

Airlines

Air India (Dar Es Salaam, Mumbai, New Delhi)
Air Madagascar (Antananarivo)
Air Malawi (Lilongwe)
Air Mauritius (Mauritius)
Air Seychelles (Seychelles)
Air Tanzania (Dar Se Salaam)
Air Zimbabwe (Harare)
British Airways (London-Heathrow)
Cameroon Airlines (Yaounde)
Emirates (Dar Es Salaam, Dubai, Entebbe)
Ethiopian Airlines (Addis Ababa)
Gulf Air (Bahrain)
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (Amsterdam)
Kenya Airways (Abidjan, Accra, Addis Ababa, Amsterdam, Antananarivo, Bamako, Bangkok, Bujumbura, Cairo, Dar Es Salaam, Dakar, Djibouti, Douala, Dubai, Entebbe, Guangzhou, Harare, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Khartoum, Kigali, Kinshasa, Kisumu, Lamu, Lagos, Lilongwe, London-Heathrow, Lubumbashi, Maputo, Mauritius, Mombasa, Mumbai, Seychelles, Yaounde, Zanzibar)
Martinair (Amsterdam)
Qatar Airways (Doha)
Saudi Arabian Airlines (Jeddah, Johannesburg)
SN Brussels Airlines (Brussels, Entebbe)
South African Airways (Johannesburg)
Sudan Airways (Khartoum)
Swiss International Air Lines (Zürich)

In addition, cargo services are flown by DAS Air Cargo, Evergreen International, Simba Air Cargo, TMA and Trans Arabian.

Accidents

On 20 November 1974, a Lufthansa Boeing 747-130, D-ABYB, crashed on take off from the airport killing 59 of the 157 on board.

On 23 November, 1996, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961, which was on an Addis Ababa-Nairobi-Brazzaville-Lagos-Abidjan route, was hijacked after it entered Kenyan airspace. The hijackers demanded that the plane be flown to Australia, but the plane ran out of fuel and crashed in the Comoros Islands.

In 2000, a Kenya Airways plane heading to this airport crashed after take off from Côte d'Ivoire, killing 169 of the 179 passengers on board.

External links

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