Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) said it has registered an appreciable recovery in air traffic movements at the close of the year 2020/2021. In particular, the cargo counter registered a growth of about 1.8% when compared to the traffic obtaining in 2019/2020. This was supported by enhanced demand for fresh produce and other consumables in destination markets as well as the conveyance of COVID-19 related supplies.
According to KAA, aircraft movement recorded a recovery of about 73%, passenger traffic was at 49.55%; this is attributed to the slow growth of transit passengers as the global economy continued to be devastated by the pandemic. In particular, the COVID-19 Delta variant has continued to present major challenges in certain major destination markets such as India, some countries in Europe and the Far East.
KAA said in the Month of June 2021, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport’s passenger throughput increased from the figure recorded in the same month in 2020 to hit 284,506 passengers. Aircraft movement went up by 254.6% to record a movement of 5,649 aircraft over the same period, while the amount of cargo handled increased by 27.4% to stand at 28,119,101.0 Kgs recorded over the period under review.
While these numbers might paint a rosy picture, it is important to note that the country was on total lockdown during this time last year. The JKIA, Moi, Eldoret, Kisumu and Wilson Airports performed well during the month of June this year.