The Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) has terminated the Greenfield Terminal construction project at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport due to the operational, economic and financial dynamics that have been experienced; this is according to a statement from the authority.
“The Kenya Airports Authority wishes to inform members of the public that the JKIA Greenfield Terminal project has been terminated with immediate effect by the authority,” acting managing director Yatich Kangugo said in a statement.
Payments to Anhui Construction Company which was the company contracted to carry out the construction was also stopped. However, Anhui withdrew US$ 4m from KAA before the commencement of the project after it went to site in September 2013.
The US$ 551m terminal was intended to be the largest in Africa increasing JKIA’s capacity to 20 million passengers annually with the closest airport terminal in the region, in terms of capacity being South Africa’s OR Tambo’s central terminal, with a capacity of 12 million passengers followed by Egypt’s Cairo airport terminal three with a capacity of 11 million and Sham-el Sheikh, also in Egypt, with 7.5 million.
The new terminal Phase 1 building was to be 178,000m² providing 50 international and ten domestic check-in positions, 32 contact gates and eight remote gates. The terminal apron was to provide 45 aircraft stands with flexible provision for narrow body and wide body aircraft and a taxiway system that will also connect with a future second runway.
The terminated project had been designed to include construction of a four-level terminal building consisting of a central processing area, a transit hotel, landside retail centers, arrivals and departures plaza, also ancillary facilities which included an access road, car parking, access taxiways, Ground Service Equipment and bus parking areas.
KAA however pointed out that it remains confident that the ongoing modernization and expansion of the JKIA hub is adequate to positioning the airport as the aviation gateway for the East African region.
