MOMBASA AIRPORT OVERHAUL ENDS IN TIME FOR HIGH SEASON
(Posted 12th June 2013)
Work at the Moi International Airport in Mombasa, ongoing for several years to upgrade arrival and departure lounges and other facilities, is according to the airport manager Yatich Kangugo on course to be completed in time for the next tourist high season. Mombasa receives daily scheduled flights from Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines and Turkish Airlines while RwandAir and Air Uganda fly several times a week nonstop from Kigali and Entebbe respectively to Kenya’s port city. However, most traffic from abroad comprises inclusive tour charters from mostly European destinations bringing sun seekers to the Kenyan coast. As a primary gateway into Kenya, the majority of passengers going through the airport are tourists and many of those have in the past complained about less than adequate facilities and the state of upkeep of the airport.
Under KAA’s infrastructure development plan, Mombasa too was benefiting from major refurbishment and modernization measures, a move welcomed by the coast’s tourism industry.
‘What we now need is the county government to tackle the roads from the airport into Mombasa and across to the northern mainland. We also need the bypass to the south coast area. It makes no sense that you can fly from Kigali in an hour and a half to Mombasa and then spend twice that time to get to a resort in Diani. When we get our long promised international conference centre in Bamburi, we cannot afford to have participants of conventions and large scale meetings come to Mombasa and be stuck in traffic. MCTA [Mombasa and Coast Tourist Association] has made many detailed proposals of what the tourist industry requires for future growth. Infrastructure is on top of that list, roads, water and sewerage connections, electricity. If the central government in Nairobi and the county government we now have in Mombasa can resolve these issues, the sky will be the limit for us’ wrote a regular contributor from the coast, when passing the news about the airport refurbishment coming to a conclusion. Kenya on the move? No doubt about that. Visit www.magicalkenya.com for more information about the destination or www.kws.org for details on national and marine parks, game reserves and other protected areas.
