Officials: Malindi airport expansion plan complete

A feasibility study to expand Malindi airport’s runway is complete.

According to officials, the expansion will start as soon as land for the project is acquired.

The Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) intends to expand the runway from the current 1.5km to 2.5km, to enable larger planes from various European destinations to land directly.

KAA said complicated land issues had contributed to the delay of the project, since the area earmarked for the airport's expansion had been encroached on by home owners.

Malindi Airport Manager Walter Agong said they will collaborate with all stakeholders, including county and national governments and the affected families, in a bid to reach an amicable solution to the encroached land.

“We have done the feasibility studies and submitted the estimates for the expansion. All the technical planning has been completed. We now hope to move in and start talks on the proper acquisition of the land,” he said.

Presently, more than 30,000 people are said to have settled on the land with a lot of infrastructural investment undertaken. The owners have also sworn not to move until the Government compensates them for the land and investments.

Mr Agong further confirmed that the expansion plans of the airport would be undertaken in three phases with the setting up of an ultramodern terminal building setting the stage of phase one.

Enough Landing Space

The terminal building is already complete and in use.

The second phase, according to Agong, would involve expansion of the apron to give planes sufficient space.

And speaking separately, Malindi hotelier Godfrey Karume said the expansion of the airport was long overdue.

“It will serve well to have direct charter flights from Italy which services our Malindi hotels. Currently, tourists flying into Kenya from Italy have to connect flights or fly to Mombasa and endure the torturous four-hour road trip from Mombasa to Malindi,” said Mr Karume, the proprietor of Baobab Apartments.

The airport expansion project is part of the national government master plan, which has faced severe opposition from local leaders, who use the area for settling of squatters as well as a political campaign tool.