A report by the Airport Council International (ACI) World Air Traffic has ranked Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) of Kenya, as the second in the ‘Fastest Growing Airports (Handling over 250,000 metric tons of air cargo)’ category.
In 2018 Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) handled over 342,000 metric tons of air cargo which is a 25% increase from 2017.
The report by the Airport Council International (ACI) World Air Traffic showed the fastest growing airports in 2018 while recognizing top aircraft movements, the top airports for cargo, as well as passengers.
The Airport Council International (ACI)’s World Air Traffic report also stated that airports worldwide accommodated 8.8 billion passengers, aircraft movement of up to 99.9 million and 122.7 million metric tonnes of cargo.
Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA)’s increase in cargo traffic was credited by the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) to movement to and from America, Asia, Australia as well as Europe.
The Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) added that Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA)’s cargo area has in recent times, been undergoing facility improvements which are aimed towards increasing the airport’s annual overall cargo capacity to 1.2 million tons.
Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) which also handles an estimated 6.5 million passengers annually, is positioning itself to be the cargo distribution center for online commerce companies within the region of East Africa and beyond.
A new transit shed which is expected to boost capacity by 150,000 metric tons is currently being built by Logistics firm; Mitchell Cotts.
Cargo Airline; Astral Aviation, has also acquired three Boeing 747-400 cargo aircrafts in order to boost its freight capacity.