■ KENYA: KAA board sends its MD, Stephen Gichuki, on leave; says won't renew his contract.

The Board of Directors of the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) has announced that its outgoing Managing Director, Engineer Stephen Gichuki, will go on his terminal leave until the expiration of his contract on October 23.

■ KENYA: Kenya Airways takes $4million knock from Nairobi fire as Kenyatta speeds up Terminal 4's opening.

Kenya Airways (KQ) has suffered USD4million in losses owing to the recent outbreak of fire at Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, CEO Dr Titus Naikuni has said. Despite the erection of tents to process international flights five days after the fire, passengers are still facing long delays and cancellations.

■■ KENYA: Huge blaze rips through Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

A devastating fire tore through the International Arrivals building and Unit 1 departures at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Wednesday, August 7, forcing the local authorities to temporarily close the airfield until further notice. The fire was under control after three hours with no injuries, fatalities or damage to any aircraft thus far having been recorded. Kenya Airways did report that one member of its staff and a passenger had slight smoke inhalation and were safe in hospital for further investigation. The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority has granted clearance to the Kenya Airports Authority to use Unit 3 for international departures and arrivals.

■ KENYA: Mass delays at Nairobi JKIA after pipeline fault starves airport of Jet A1.

Nearly two thousand passengers, among them 49 athletes from the Kenyan athletics team heading to the IAAF Athletics World Championships in Moscow were, on the night of Monday August 5, stranded at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport after the main pipeline supplying jet fuel to the airport malfunctioned resulting in the mass cancellation of flights.

■ KENYA: Construction of Nairobi JKIA's second runway to start in November.

Construction of Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International Airport's much needed second runway is set to begin in November this year after Kenyan Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary, Michael Kamau, gave the go ahead to ensure that the project is completed by 2017.

■ KENYA: Siginon Aviation's new $10million cargo facility at Nairobi JKIA on track for September opening.

Siginon Aviation says its planned USD10million new cargo facility at Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is on track for a tentative September 2013 launch. The facility will become JKIA's sixth and will add to its current processing capacity of 200'000 tonnes of cargo annually.

■■ KENYA: (Pics) A look at Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International Airport's proposed Terminal 4 currently being built.

 

Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International Airport Project Greenfield & Terminal 4

[UPDATE 16 APRIL] Now that all the dust has settled following a protracted court case involving accusations of favoritism and bribery in the awarding of the tender for Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport's (JKIA) new Terminal 4 and future Greenfield Terminal and a second runway expansion planned, construction has finally started, though when the entire project will be completed, is anyone's guess.

■ KENYA: KAA tenders for the construction of a new domestic terminal at Nairobi JKIA.

The Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) has officially issued a tender for the design, construction of the terminal building, supply and installation, testing, commissioning and  handing over of a new Domestic Terminal at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

■ KENYA: Kenya Airways gets licence for LCC JamboJet; set to seal a USD80million loan, but will Government bungling be its undoing?

After a hefty 57% drop in annual profits coupled with the nasty storm kicked up by its planned workforce layoffs earlier this month, Kenya Airways' (KQ) has at last announced some positive news to the effect that it has been granted an operator's licence for its planned Low Cost Carrier (LCC), Jambo Jet, by the Kenyan Civil Aviation Authority. Additionally, the airline is about to seal a loan for roughly USD80million (KSh7billion) with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of a larger financing deal worth KSh34billion ($400 million), necessary to finance the carrier's pre-delivery payments for a fleet of nine Boeing 787-800 Dreamliners, the first of which is expected in 2014.

The loan is yet to be signed, though the terms have been agreed to, which is no surprise given that the IFC has a 9.56% shareholding in the Kenyan carrier.

'Negotiations for the loan are already at an advanced stage, the outgoing IFC director for eastern and southern Africa Jean Philippe Prosper, said in an interview.

“We have agreed with Kenya Airways on the terms of the loan, but we have not signed it yet. We will do the signing in the next few months,” said Mr Prosper.'

Source [BusinessDaily Africa]

Prosper noted that the deal was a part of a larger USD$400million loan that would be used to help finance Kenya Airways fleet renewal program involving the purchase of nine (9) new Boeing 787-800s (Dreamliners) (B787s), one (1) Boeing 777-300ER (B777-300ER), and ten (10) Embraer EMB190 aircraft (E-190s).

Kenya Airways latest E190 in Brazil

Notable too is that Tanzania's Precision Air, in whom Kenya Airways has a 41% shareholding, will receive a tranche of  "between USD4 million to USD6 million" from the IFC loan. Why notable? Because Precision Air will be a direct competitor to Jambo Jet, Kenya Airways' first  venture into the LCC market after an 8 year hiatus following its previous attempt - Flamingo Airlines - which fizzled out when the subsidiary was quietly absorbed into KQ. Jambo Jet's operating licence will permit it to operate air services, for both passengers and cargo, within Kenya and to other African countries using Boeing 737s and Embraer Jets, of which a new one is due this week.

JamboJet will in the long term, take over its parent's short-haul domestic and regional flights, leaving Kenya Airways to focus on growing its connections between Africa and international markets.

According to The Nation newspaper, its first destinations in Kenya are slated to be:

• Wajir
• Eldoret
• Kisumu
• Mombasa
• Lamu
• Malindi

While its regional routes will start with:

• Dar-es-salaam, Mwanza, Zanzibar, Pemba and Kilimanjaro (Tanzania)
• Entebbe (Uganda)
• Addis Ababa (Ethiopia)
• Antananarivo (Madagascar)
• Bujumbura (Burundi)
• Kigali (Rwanda)
• Hargeisa (Somaliland)
• Juba (South Sudan)
• Goma and Kisangani (Democratic Republic of Congo)
• Moroni and Dzaoudzi (Comoros Island)

 Source [The Nation, Kenya]

Frustratingly, Kenya Airways hasn't been getting all its own way on the aviation infrastructure scene; after all an efficient Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is critical to Kenya Airways' long term success.

Whilst rivals Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda and even South Sudan are all pushing ahead with new airports and new expansion projects, the Kenyan national carrier is finding itself trapped in a massive quagmire of uncertainty, as revelations of favouritism and now bribery threaten to derail Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport's (JKIA) new Greenfield Terminal (also known as Terminal 4) and a second runway expansion plan.

What should have started in 2005 has taken 7 years to get off the ground as a result of insufficient funding, and now revelations of bribery and corruption have reared their ugly head.

 Jomo Kenyatta International Airport's Terminal 4 Expansion Plan

The Kenya Airports Authority Board recently sent its Managing Director Stephen Gichuki on compulsory leave over Nairobi's JKIA expansion tender saga, to allow for further investigations following Transport minister Amos Kimunya's halting of the USD660million project after he suspected corrupt dealings in the awarding of the tender, won by Anhui Construction Engineering Group of China. The board has, however, backed the minister’s step to revoke the tender given to a Chinese firm, saying that Kenyans could have lost money. At the time of writing this article, there appears to be no short term solution to the impasse.

In a statement on the matter, KQ's Boss Titus Naikuni said that persistent delays would ultimately end up hurting Kenya Airways' expansion plans:

“The significance of this project to our continued profitability as an airline cannot be under-estimated. Kenya Airways and its partners in the SkyTeam alliance will contribute 70-80 per cent of the traffic to the new terminal. The cost of constructing the new terminal will be borne by the passengers that we will put through the new terminal. It is therefore logical that we must be listened to and be seen to be heard,” said Naikuni.

Source [StandardMedia]

Kenya Airways' ordeal with the slow turning wheels of Government decision making highlight a problem few countries in Africa truly take into consideration - that regardless of ambition, a private company is only as efficient as its operating environment allows it to be. With its regional neighbours taking their game up a notch, Kenya, and consequently Kenya Airways, will invariably be forced into playing a game of "Catch Up", as opposed to "Follow the Leader", if it is unable to proceed with infrastructure projects in a transparent manner.

► KENYA: Egyptair A320 skids on landing at Nairobi; massive delays follow.

This morning, at 03.36am local time, an Egyptair Airbus A320-200 (SU-GBG), performing flight MS 849 from Cairo to Nairobi, skidded on touchdown at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, before eventually ending up in soft mud. There were 123 passengers on-board all of whom were able to safely disembark from the stranded aircraft.

Egyptair A320 SU-GBG in the mud at Nairobi. (Buggs79)

"All passengers and crew were safely evacuated to the terminal building even as  all emergencies operations at the Airport including fire and rescue were activated immediately."

Read More Here [Kenya Airports Authority]

The resulting closure of Nairobi's lone runway has caused numerous delays and diversions for various airlines, most notably Kenya Airways, who have had to delay many departures as well as divert many arriving aircraft to either Mombasa, Entebbe or Dar es Salaam

● 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.