● KENYA: Jomo Kenyatta Airport on track for New Terminal 4, CAT 1 & US flights.

As Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport continues to exceed its original designed capacity of 2 million passengers/year by almost 4million passengers/year, so the urgency for expansion and improved security and logistics mounts.

With a history of false starts and the global economic crisis of recent years, the Kenyan Government has in the past, had to shelve its ambitious plans to build a second terminal known as the Greenfield Terminal, due to lack of funding available for its KSh90million price tag.

Transiting in Nairobi at present.

Thankfully now it seems that the construction of a new Terminal 4 has gone ahead, with Kenya Airways actively participating. Construction is expected to be completed by 2017.

"Once complete, the terminal is expected to handle 20 million passengers annually, apart from boosting the airport’s status as a regional hub of international standard.

The terminal is to be constructed in two phases that will include the setting up of a new terminal building and floor area of 172,000 square metres.

This will include 50 international and 10 domestic check-in positions, 32 contact and eight remote gates.

It will also have linking taxi ways and an associated apron (part of the airport provided for stationing of aircraft for the embarkation and disembarkation of passengers or loading and unloading of cargo) with 45 stands."

 Read More Here [The Nation Kenya]

Despite many objections from airlines alike, the Kenyan Airport Authority (KAA) recently increased airport passenger taxes from USD$20 to USD$40, which will hopefully, be used in raising the needed USD$500 million needed to make the renovations a reality.

The planned additions to JKIA.

Last month, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga gave a presentation on JKIA whilst on tour in Atlanta, USA where he discussed JKIA and the improvements necessary to airport security and handling in order to make direct flights between Kenya and the US (Delta Airlines have expressed interest in starting Atlanta - Dakar - Nairobi), a reality.

"Jomo Kenyatta International Airport’s new terminal may be what’s needed to launch a direct Atlanta-Nairobi, Kenya, flight, Raila Odinga, the East African country’s prime minister, told GlobalAtlanta while visiting Atlanta April 26.  

Mr. Odinga said a major concern of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration is that arriving and departing passengers to and from Nairobi’s airport must remain separated.  “The new terminal will be able to do that,” he added, “and it is to be completed in four months.”  The Kenyatta airport’s expansion began last year and is expected to handle 9 million passengers a year from the current traffic of more than 6 million passengers."

Read More Here [Global Atlanta]

In other improvements, KAA has has contracted Spanish IT solutions provider INDRA to help modernize terminal operations and integrate information flow at both Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi and Moi International Airport in Mombasa.

The planned system integration will cover a variety of applications, including improved allocation of boarding gates, the provision of check in gates and personnel required to result in a better resource use and optimized services for airlines using these two airports.
At the same time the new system will provide better data and statistics as well as link the gate data to a new automated billing set up, which is intended to safe cost and improve accuracy as information collected at the gates will without further intermediate processing go directly on to the invoices the programme raises.

Read More Here [Wolfganghthome's Blog]