Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) has begun talks with the Kilifi County government ahead of a planned expansion of Malindi Airport's runway 17/35 in which the plans to acquire more than 25 hectares of land from about 100 families on the southern boundary of the airport to facilitate the airport’s expansion.
 |
| New Malindi Airport Terminal (KAA) |
The KAA intends to lengthen the 1'400m-long runway 17/35 by 1'500m in order to allow for the operation of larger jets capable of flying direct from Europe to the coastal city.
According to The Star, the KAA last week held a closed door meeting with Kilifi County governor, Amason Kingi, to try and get support for locals to move out of the area and pave way for the development. Mr Kingi is said to agreed to the development, provided it received local support from those affected. As such a committee has been set up to look into the matter.
"As a county we are ready for the development of the airport, but the say lies to the people, the committee formed shall determine whether the project shall be done or not," he said.
The Governor said if the locals agreed KAA should ensure the affected families are compensated fully and relocated to another area to avoid any conflicts in future.
The government-funded project, part of the ongoing Malindi airport expansion plans, began in 2011, and was contracted to Dickways Construction and involved building a brand new USD2.3million (KES200million) terminal opened last year with a capacity of handling 500 passengers per hour, a new control tower for enhanced air traffic control services and the rehabilitation and extension of the runway.
The government-funded project, part of the ongoing Malindi airport expansion plans, began in 2011, and was contracted to Dickways Construction and involved building a brand new USD2.3million (KES200million) terminal opened last year with a capacity of handling 500 passengers per hour, a new control tower for enhanced air traffic control services and the rehabilitation and extension of the runway.
On a completely unrelated note, three disused oil rigs off the Malindi coast are also the site of the decommissioned Italian spaceport & off-shore launching platform, the Luigi Broglio Space Centre (BSC), once used for the launching of US Scout B rockets.
