Jomo Kenyatta International Airport

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Jomo Kenyatta International Airport

IATA: NBO - ICAO: HKJK
Summary
Airport type		Joint (Civil and Military)
Operator		Kenya Airports Authority
Serves		Nairobi
Elevation AMSL		5,327 ft (1,624 m)
Coordinates		01°19′09.26″S, 36°55′39.99″E
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
06/24	13,507	4,117	Asphalt

Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, (IATA: NBO, ICAO: HKJK) formerly called Nairobi International Airport is one of Kenya's large aviation facilities and East Africa's busiest 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, runway 06 is 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).

1 History
2 Terminal
3 Future Expansion
4 Airlines and destinations
5 Cargo
6 Accidents
7 External links

[edit] History

The airport was opened in May 1958 [1].

[edit] 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.

[edit] Future Expansion

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 airport's annual passenger flow topped 4 million, while the airport was only constructed to handle 2.5 million passengers.

The expansion of the airport will more than double it's size, 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 built. The arrivals and departures section will be fully separated, and the waiting area will be revamped.

The expansion will increase the airport's capacity to 9 million passengers a year. The project will cost the Kenya Airports Authority $100 million. The World Bank will provide $10 million. The first phase of upgrading commenced on September 29, 2006.

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

[edit] Airlines and destinations

Air India (Mumbai, New Delhi)
Air Italy (Rome, Milan) December 23rd 2006
Air Madagascar (Antananarivo)
Air Malawi (Lilongwe)
Air Mauritius (Mauritius)
Air Seychelles (Seychelles)
Air Tanzania (Dar Es Salaam)
Air Zimbabwe (Harare)
British Airways (London-Heathrow)
Cameroon Airlines (Yaounde)
Corsairfly (Paris-Orly)
Emirates (Dubai)
Ethiopian Airlines (Addis Ababa)
Five Forty Aviation (Mombasa)
Gulf Air (Bahrain)
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (Amsterdam)
Kenya Airways (Abidjan, Accra, Addis Ababa, Amsterdam,Bamako, Bangkok, Bujumbura, Cairo,Comoros,Dar Es Salaam, Dakar, Djibouti, Douala, Dubai, Entebbe, Freetown, Guangzhou, Harare, Hong Kong, Istanbul-Atatürk, Johannesburg, Khartoum, Kigali, Kinshasa,Lamu, Lagos, Lilongwe, London-Heathrow, Lubumbashi, Maputo, Mauritius,Mayotte, Mombasa, Mumbai, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Seychelles, Yaounde, Zanzibar)
Martinair (Amsterdam)
Precision Air (Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, Kilimanjaro, Shinyanga)
Qatar Airways (Doha)
Rwandair Express (Kigali)
Saudi Arabian Airlines (Jeddah, Johannesburg)
SN Brussels Airlines (Brussels, Entebbe)
South African Airways (Johannesburg)
Sudan Airways (Khartoum)
Swiss International Air Lines (Zürich)
Victoria International Airlines (Kampala) [2]

[edit] Cargo

[edit] Accidents

Lufthansa Flight 540: On 20 November 1974, a Lufthansa Boeing 747-130, D-ABYB, LH 540, "Hessen" (German state), delivered 1970, crashed on take off from runway 25 in Nairobi killing 59 of the 157 on board. The aircraft was on a flight from Frankfurt to Nairobi and onwards to Johannesburg. The hydraulic systems were not configured properly for the departure, which resulted in the failure of the leading-edge slats to extend even though they had been selected down by the flight crew. The aircraft did not rotate as expected, but the first officer and flying pilot Joachim Schacke pulled the aircraft up into the sky as the end of the runway approached. The aircraft did not accelerate as expected and soon after the stall warning appeared. Even the captain, Christian Krack, was not able to handle the situation any more. Although the angle of attack was reduced and the gear was raised, the aircraft started to decelerate and stalled. It only gained a few meters of height and touched the ground 1120 m behind the runway. It crashed on its tail, cutting it of behind the wing root, all people in this section died due to fire. The front part crashed onto the surface a few meters behind the tail but did not catch fire completely and immediately, the upper deck collapsed and fell down on the main deck. The upper deck lounge was not in use to carry passengers, the flight crew escaped through their roof exit. Surviving passengers and cabin crew members left the plane through holes in the fuselage and slides. This was the largest accident of a German airliner ever. Flight engineer Rudi Hahn was sued but discharged in 1981, Boeing covered most of the compensation as a comparable incident on a BA flight in 1972 was not communicated to other airlines.

On 17 May, 1989 a Boeing 707-330B plane operated by Somali Airlines overran the runway and crashed into a field near the Airport. The plane had 70 on board, but no fatalities resulted.

On 04 December, 1990 a Boeing 707-321C operated by Sudania Air Cargo crashed near the airport while landing. All 10 persons on board died.

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.