From (Left) Steven Small, the Brand Director of Routes, (Centre) Alex Gitari, the Acting Managing Director and Chief Executive Kenya Airports Authority and (Right) Raphael Kuuchi, the Vice President, Africa, IATA during the 12th Routes Africa forum held in Mombasa on ,Monday December 9, 2019. Photo by Joseph Kamolo/KNA. The African Aviation market will increase by 200 million passengers to over 356 million by 2038, this is according to the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) latest forecast.
Closer home, IATA predicts that over the next two decades, the Kenyan air transport market could more than double in size resulting in an additional 11.3 million passenger journeys, over 449,000 more jobs and a US$11.3 billion (Sh1.1 trillion) boost to GDP by 2038.
Speaking on Monday during the 2019 Routes Africa forum that was attended by over 250 international delegates, Raphael Kuuchi who is Vice-President, Africa, IATA said Africa’s aviation industry projected growth represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 4.6 percent of the continent’s total market size.
While making his keynote address during the opening ceremony, Kuuchi said “Routes Africa is critical to the development of air services on the continent and added these forums have made a real impact on the region.
“Kenya is among the top three aviation markets in Africa where growth is forecast to be the strongest over the next two decades but if the full potential of the industry in Africa is to be realised, airspace in the region needs to be liberalised.”
Through the Routes Africa 2019 forum themed ’Accessing Markets’, the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) now hopes to encourage more international and regional domestic airlines to fly into Kenya.
Speaking
during a media briefing on the sidelines of the Routes Africa Forum 2019, Alex Gitari, acting Managing Director & Chief Executive KAA said, “Over the last two years, we have been implementing an ambitious strategy to deal with one of the key challenges also facing the aviation sector in the continent namely, expansion and improvement of capacity at our main airports.”
Gitari noted that the remodelling of the terminal separating arriving and departing passengers at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) has boosted airport security and has also raised the airport’s annual capacity with 11.9 million passengers traveling through Kenya’s airports every year.
The expansion and modernisation of Kenyan airports is a key flagship project under Vision 2030, Kenya’s economic blueprint.
A steady growth in trade and tourism has seen overall […]
