JKIA to get new terminal and upgraded facilities

The expansion of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) will be implemented in two parallel phases, with the government continuing to use the existing airport while constructing a new terminal.

This will take place as the government adopts a new master plan under which works on the region’s largest aviation hub are expected to take three years to complete.

Under the updated master plan, Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir said the project will include a new terminal, upgraded airfield infrastructure, an airport city and a full-fledged special economic zone (SEZ).

According to the Transport Ministry, immediate-term works will begin on the current runway, where two rapid-exit taxiways will be constructed to ease congestion and improve aircraft turnaround times.

A partial parallel taxiway will also be added to improve airfield circulation.

Within the airport, existing terminals will be reconfigured and selectively expanded to ease passenger congestion.

“We have been working on this master plan for a year. With the documents now published, it is time to go. We want to give Kenya and the region the modern airport it deserves,” Chirchir told the press at JKIA on Tuesday.

The Cabinet Secretary said the government is formally inviting companies to bid for what he described as one of Kenya’s largest infrastructure undertakings in recent years.

The project, anchored on a newly completed integrated master plan and feasibility study, is intended to relieve pressure on the country’s busiest aviation gateway and position it as a globally competitive logistics and investment hub.

Chirchir said JKIA currently handles about nine million passengers annually, exceeding its designed capacity of 7.5 million.

Forecasts project passenger numbers to rise to 22 million by 2045, while air cargo volumes are expected to more than double from 400,000 tonnes to 860,000 tonnes.

The master plan, completed in February, identifies key bottlenecks, including runway congestion, limited aircraft parking, terminal overcrowding and deteriorating landside access.

Without intervention, the report warns, these constraints would erode JKIA’s competitiveness as the region’s premier aviation hub and Kenya Airways' main base.

The new terminal complex, which will be built concurrently, is designed to handle 10 million passengers annually. It will be supported by new taxiways, aprons, air traffic control upgrades, firefighting facilities, cargo and maintenance zones, fuel infrastructure and expanded landside access roads.

Chirchir said the government aims to complete the new airport infrastructure within three years, while existing facilities will undergo a 15-month optimisation programme to raise capacity to 12 million passengers to meet demand during the construction period.