KENYA AIRPORT AUTHORITY UNDER RENEWED FIRE
Pun was intended, according to a regular aviation source from Kenya, when he reported that the VIP Lounge at the Moi International Airport in Mombasa had burned to ashes yesterday morning.
Only recently extensively refurbished the lounge was accessible to government officials and other VIP travelers. Said the source: This is just another nail in KAAs competence. In Nairobi last year they had repairs ongoing in Terminal 3 and a hot water boiler exploded. Here they have repairs just finished and now say that an airconditioner caught fire. What contractors are they employing that such disasters keep happening. What procurement are they doing, Jua Kali or what? Remember the power outages at JKIA last year, the year before here in Mombasa which halted all flights after dark for several days? We in the aviation industry are just so fed up with organizations where appointments are made on political grounds instead of competence. Aviation demands top competence and here is another example how they let us down. Thankfully no one was injured and the fire brigade from the airport managed to extinguish the fire before it could spread to other parts of the airport terminal building or affect flight operations.
KAA in the meantime also face questions on the progress of the extension of Nairobis Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, where apron spaces, aircraft parking spaces and a new terminal are being constructed, with members of the aviation fraternity asking for the pace of work to be stepped up further to ensure timely completion of the project. No answers were forthcoming either from KAA over the start of constructing a second runway at JKIA, which is long overdue and seen as a critical constraint for further traffic growth at East Africas biggest airport. Watch this space on regular aviation updates from across the East African region.
