JKIA sees 53 per cent increased traffic after Covid-19 pandemic
By Steve Umidha, May 5, 2023
Airline traffic through the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) recovered by 53 percent of pre-pandemic levels last year, according to figures published by the government’s statistics office.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data in its 2022 Economic Survey, shows that the number of passengers handled at Kenyan airports predominantly through JKIA, significantly rose from 6.7 million passengers in 2021 to 10.2 million passengers in 2022.
The number of international passengers handled at Kenya airports increased by 80.4 percent to 5.1 million last year.
Similarly, passenger traffic through East Africa’s largest airport increased by 65 percent from 3.97 million passengers in 2021 to 6.5 million passengers in 2022, while Moi International Airport and other airports’ passenger traffic jumped by 41.9 per cent and 31.3 per cent respectively in the review year.
Such growths were however not witnessed in the total volume of cargo traffic which trivially lessened from 375.8 million tonnes in 2021 to 375 million tonnes, with similar drops seen in mail traffic which decreased from 1.7 million tonnes in 2021 to 1.3 million tonnes in 2022.
JKIA handled 3.63 million tonnes of cargo traffic in 2022 compared to 361.5 thousand tonnes in 2021, while MIA handled 2.3 million tonnes compared to 2.0 million tonnes, over the same period. All other airports handled 10,000 tonnes in 2022 compared to 12.3 million tonnes in 2021.
Airlines lost tens of billions of shillings in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and saw first signs of relief as travel started to return to normal in 2022, with JKIA like most airports not spared.
And with markets like China now reopened, that recovery is set to go on. China is Kenya’s sixth largest source market and accounted for 82,180 and 83,388 arrivals in 2018 and 2019 respectively.