Will JKIA's T4 fast Track Direct flights to US?



An artist's impression of the 
land side of terminal 4 
THE COMPLETION OF Terminal 4, at the Jomo Kenya international Airport in Kenya could fast-track Kenya Airways entry into the US. Security features at the new terminal address security concerns of the US government, we can report.

The security features include separation of arriving and departing passengers. In the two-storey Terminal 4, arrivals will use the second floor while departures will use the first floor. 

The separation will be enforced by use of bold signage directing arriving, departing and transiting passengers to their respective floors to ensure all passengers get to their destination on time, says a KAA internal document.

This security measure could fast track negotiations for Kenya Airways to fly to the US. In April, the new America ambassador to Kenya, Scot Gration, told the local press that the separation of passengers in this manner was a one of the conditions that hold the authority for KQ to fly direct to US.

The Kenya Airport Authority’s handbook 2011-2012, says that the separation will involve building an additional floor in all four termini at the airport so that arriving passengers will be using their own floor separate from departing passengers. It will also include the construction of an airside corridor separating arriving and departing passengers.

Built by a Chinese Construction company CATIC, the US$72.3 million  terminal will increase the parking space from 200,000M2 with 23 stands to 300,000Maccommodating 37 stands meaning  it will accommodate more aircraft.
It will  also add another  23,500M2 of floor space  which will ease congestion at the Airport. Currently the airport, initially designed to serve some 2.5 million passengers,  handles  more than 6 million passengers a year.The new terminal will handle one-way peak hour traffic of 1,500 passengers..
 The terminal slated to serve international departures and arrivals only will be fully operational by Mid-Next year. It is now more than 50 per cent complete, sources close to the project say.
An artist's impression of the cargo Village 

An extended apron from terminal 4 to cargo village will increase its capacity   load eight wide-bodied aircraft simultaneously. Currently the cargo village can load only three such aircraft. JKIA is the cargo hub of Africa handling some 30 million tons of Cargo a year.

The terminal is designed to pamper the international traveler. It will have such facilities as an ATM lobby and Forex bureaux, a bookstore, beauty services, a Spa, Airline lounges and meeting rooms for businessmen.
International fast food brands such as Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and McDonald’s among others will be available in addition to Chinese, Indian and African specialty food outlets. This variety will ensure that as an international airport one will be able to get the quality of food found anywhere in the world while still giving the option for Kenyan flavor.


Other conveniences on offer to the travelling public and discerning Kenyans will include high end specialty shops and luxury brands such us Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Louis Vuitton and Burberry as part of a wider product offering.

The duty free area on the second floor of the termini will be concessioned to a master concessionaire to manage it. Consessionairing is a widely used system by most successful international airports in Europe, Asia, America and South Africa. It has also been successfully replicated by Kenyan shopping malls.

The master concessionaire will ensure that duty free retail outlets add value to both customers and contribute to KAA’s bottom line.

 Nairobi has become the financial, manufacturing, medical, educational and diplomatic hub in the east and central Africa region. These factors put lots of pressure on the Airport to also modernize and become the aviation hub of Africa.

JKIA is also home base for Kenya Airways, one of the most successful airlines in Africa, and 46 other international and domestic airlines that fly to more than 100 destinations. It is the natural aviation hub of Africa.

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