Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) emerged second in the ‘Fastest Growing Airports (Handling over 250,000 metric tons of air cargo)’ category as it handled over 342,000 metric tons of air cargo in 2018 indicating a 25% increase from 2017.
Airport Council International (ACI) World Air Traffic Report indicates top airports for cargo, aircraft movements, passengers, and showed the fastest growing airports in 2018.
Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) credits the growth to increase in cargo traffic to and from Europe, Asia, America, China, and Australia.
In addition, KAA said that the JKIA cargo area has been undergoing facilities improvement aimed at increasing the annual overall cargo capacity to 1.2 million tons.
Furthermore, Mitchell Cotts, a logistics firm, is constructing a new transit shed expected to boost capacity by 150,000 metric tons while Astral Aviation, a cargo airline, acquired three Boeing 747-400 cargo aircraft to boost its freight capacity.
JKIA is positioning itself to be a premier cargo distribution center for online commerce companies in the region.
The report further noted that globally, airports accommodated 8.8 billion passengers, 122.7 million metric tonnes of cargo, and 99.9 million aircraft movement.
On its part, JKIA handles an estimated 6.5 million passengers annually.
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