•Training institutions have also requested, as a stimulus, their rents with Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) be reduced by 50 per cent with effect from January 1, 2020.
•Africa’s aviation industry stands to lose an estimated $8.103 billion for the year 2020 on Covid-19 pandemic impact. Operations at Wilson Airport/ Flying schools Aviation in the country are pushing for various reforms to cushion them against the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
This is in the wake of dwindling revenues in the aviation sector where Africa stands to lose up to $8.1 billion (about Sh898.4 billion ) in revenues this year, according to the African Airlines Association (AFRAA).
Under the auspice of the Association of African Aviation Training Organisations – Kenya Chapter (AATO – KE), the schools have requested that their rents with Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) be reduced by 50 per cent come January 1.
They also want landing and parking fees charged by the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) harmonised into an annual fee, as opposed to the current system where the charges are staggered on different levels of operations and aircraft activities.
Currently, large aircraft part with an average $25(2,772) as daily parking charged at airports while landing at a facility such as the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport costs at least $580 (Sh64,327 ) during the day and an average $700 (Sh77,647) at night.
Small aircrafts park at an average $15 (Sh1,663) per day while it costs them between $220 (Sh24,400) and $265(Sh29,391) to land, depending on the time of the day or night.
“May we have one annual fee covering all KAA airfields in the place of the current complex and tedious system,” AATO – KE says in a petition presented to transport PS Solomon Kitungu.
According to the association’s’ chairman, Captain Joseph Ririani, KAA charges should also be a duplicate of the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) formula which make it easy to comply.
“Our navigation fees fixed at 50,000 are collected once annually at renewal of our certificates of airworthiness of each aircraft. This makes it very user friendly,” reads the petition in part, with AATO-KE insisting that the aviation sector has negatively been impacted by the Covid-19.
AATO, Kenya Chapter is an umbrella body for all accredited aviation training institutions and schools.The trainers have since sought the intervention of the PS over what they term “messy” operation by KAA regarding the authority’s collection of landing and parking fees.“Due to the chaotic financial mess […]
