KENYA AIRPORT AUTHORITY OPENS NEW MALINDI AIRPORT TERMINAL
(Posted 13th May 2014)
The Kenya Airport Authority yesterday officially launched their new airport terminal in Malindi. The new facility can according to details provided by KAA handled up to 500 passengers at any given time and has boosted the annual passenger handling capacity of Malindi to 300.000 passengers. Notably have the separation of arriving and departing passengers been incorporated into the design of the new terminal, allowing future international operations when the runway is eventually extended to cater for larger aircraft, capable of flying nonstop from foreign tourist source markets.
Meanwhile was the KAA CEO Ms. Lucy Mbugua then also paying a visit to the Ukunda airfield at Diani Beach, where she received from the Kwale County Governor Mr. Salim title deeds which were recovered over the past year with the assistance of Kenya’s Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission. Land belonging to KAA and set aside for future expansion of the airfield had been encroached and illegally converted into private property, hindering the extension of the runway to cater for larger and jet aircraft. Presently only turboprops like the STOL capable Dash 8 are flying into Ukunda but the tourism industry at the South coast has for long asked to improve and modernize Ukunda for more direct flights from Nairobi to beat the eternal traffic jams when crossing the notorious Likoni ferry in Mombasa, which takes as many as 3 hours each way, eating into the vacation time of tourists.
It was also learned that KAA has awarded a 6.5 million US Dollar turnkey contract to Magal Security Systems of Israel to improve critical areas of Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport which includes such components as access control technology, multi-point surveillance and an integrated information system. According to information at hand has Magal over the past years already handled such contracts for the Kenyan government, effectively earning their credentials to be selected for such critical improvements in airport security at East Africa’s largest aviation hub.
