JKIA RUNWAY REPAIRS EXPECTED TO ADD TO CONGESTION
(Posted 21st January 2015)
‘The omissions of the past have come home to roost’ said a regular aviation source from JKIA a short while ago when confirming that come April will the single runway of East Africa’s busiest international airport be closed for 6 hours every night. ‘JKIA should have had a second runway years ago but wapi? [A
Kiswahili phrase asking the rhetorical question of either WHERE or WHEN]. I remember when Mombasa, because of the poor state of the runway, had load restrictions and airlines had to land in Nairobi to refuel. The Nairobi runway has gone from bad to worse and of course, because there is no second runway, they now have to do bit by bit every night to start fixing the rot. And do not be fooled by their public statements, this is a major issue. 6 hours a day, even between midnight and six in the morning, is a full 25 percent of the daily capacity and it will have an impact on airlines. All departures after midnight till 6 and all arrivals from midnight to six will need rescheduling. This messes up connections and costs airlines money. No one can be happy about that. So they should stop lying and not claim this will have little impact. Right now there are about 25 flights taking off and a similar number landing between midnight and six a.m. and all those will have to be rescheduled. It affects domestic and international flights. Imagine, a flight might be delayed by strong headwinds and instead of landing at 23.50 hrs could arrive as much as half an hour or an hour later. What then? These flights will have to divert to Mombasa or somewhere else and the mess will be major’.
Presently is the period of consultation ongoing for the EIA of the second JKIA runway and work is not expected until at least mid, perhaps late this year, but based on no legal cases being brought subject to which a court might issue an injunction on the start of the construction.
Another source added that unless work would be done now to re-seal the runway it might deteriorate further and then lead to takeoff weight restrictions. ‘Nairobi because of the elevation is already tough on takeoffs. When it is hot during the day often means to leave cargo behind, offload luggage or even passengers so that enough fuel can be carried to reach the destination. Bad runway conditions add to these issues’.
A more recent example of runway closures is the international airport in Dubai where in mid last year the two runways were resurfaced, leading to Emirates having to consolidate and reduce flights by up to a quarter of their overall departures while other airlines had to shift to either Dubai World Central or to Sharjah for the duration. In the absence of a second runway has the Kenya Airport Authority chosen to reduce operating hours by a quarter to accomplish the work scope in the space of a year and the two months’ notice to airlines will not leave international carriers using the night hours between midnight and six much time to adjust their schedules.
‘Passenger numbers for Turkish and Egypt Air for instance depend on seamless connections in and out of their hubs in Cairo and Istanbul. If they have to shift their flights by a couple of hours, that means that at least in one direction connections are no longer assured, outbound or inbound. That might cost them passengers and revenues. Quite a few airlines will be affected by that. Quite a few flights come in between four and six and a lot of those passengers fly on to other destinations. Now if those are now due to land after six you can imagine the congestion when even more planes line up for landing. It will be tough for air traffic control and also for the airport logistics if they have to cope with a further one or two dozen flights squeezed into an already congested period’ was the insight offered by yet another JKIA based source.
It is understood that the so called NOTAM’s, aka Notices for Airmen, have already been issued and more details will no doubt be provided by KAA and JKIA to the affected airlines over the coming days and weeks. Passengers should be aware too that there will be significant changes in the schedules of several airlines between April 2015 and April 2016, while the runway receives a new layer of tarmac.
Watch this space for breaking and regular aviation news from the East African region.
3 Responses
okay I think they ought to be doing better than this, this is an international airport buy they always keep blocking sections of it to repair. why don’t they work at night to expand it
I have engaged the KAA team, These are the facts.
1. Resurfacing of the current runway is due, it happens every 10 years so it is NOT an emergency and it is nothing out of the ordinary. Dubai recently closed both runways for 3 months.
2. Increasing the capacity by construction Rapid Exit Taxiway
3. Upgrading the runway category which will be more superior.
4. KAA have appointed a slot coordinator who will purely handle the changes and he has handled key airports like Charles De Gaulle amongst others. So far he is very happy with the progress.
5. Peak period has been avoided which is after 6am and early evening.
All airlines are playing ball. The few affected airlines after midnight to 6am have now rescheduled accordingly. Discussions have been ongoing since June 2014 so they have not been caught unaware this piece wants to put it.
All other key flights will land and take off as planned with small variations .
Mohammed Hersi
Chairman: Kenya Coast Tourism Association
Interesting, considering the last resealing was done in 1992 and the lifespan is generally pegged at 15 years before resealing the runway becomes urgent.
KAA was in fact asked to comment, acknowledged the enquiry and then went silent. Great stuff!