NAIROBI, March 15 (NNN-KBC) — With Kenya playing an increasingly crucial role in the movement of air cargo in Africa, the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) has announced that it is in the process of expanding the existing cargo terminal here to handle more freighters.
The massive expansion project will see the aviation infrastructure authority increase the aircraft parking area, car park and access road at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta Internation Airport (jkia) at an estimated cost of 1.6 billion shillings (about 20.86 million USD).
Confirming the new initiative, KAA Managing Director George Muhoho said here over the weekend that the project’s main objective was to increase the capacity of the freight terminal by providing additional parking bays for five wide body aircraft and a parking area for an additional 180 motor vehicles.
“At completion, the expanded cargo apron will bring the total area under the freighting business to 90,000 square metres,” said Muhoho.
Noting that Jomo Kenyatta International Airport was currently the number two in terms cargo business in Africa, Muhoho said the demand for higher capacity had risen tremendously, with a higher number of cargo freight operators expressing a keen interest to operate out of Nairobi.
He added that because of its geographic location, especially in relation to the Great Lakes Region, several European, North American and Asian air freight operators considered JKIA the ideal base of their operation as they sought to grow their transport business in Africa.
“This is in addition to the fact that Kenya has also registered a rise in the number of companies engaging in export businesses primarily targeting Europe and the Middle East. As a result JKIA has become the second largest cargo airport in Africa,” he explained.
Muhoho noted that even after the expansion, JKIA still had sufficient potential for future expansion, with greater freedom in facilities design that will enable it to meet changing logistics needs.
The expanded JKIA cargo area is expected to accommodate large aircraft and provide sufficient large space for freight handling. In addition all cargo warehouses are directly connected to cargo aircrafts.
Warehouses have large and long canopies on both sides in order to shorten the cargo flow and realize the high quality of cargo handling. JKIA has five cargo facilities with a capacity to handle 200,000 tonnes of cargo annually, and an animal holding facility which occupies 4,318.95ft.
The cargo facilities are Kenya Airfreight Handling Limited (KAHL), Transglobal Cargo Centre, Nairobi Cargo Centre, and Cargo Service Centre. — NNN-KBC
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