State woos private sector to grow Kisumu airport

Transport PS Irungu Nyakera (right) is joined by Kisumu Governor Jack Ranguma (centre) and the Rift Valley Railways CEO Isaiah Okoth during the inspection of infrastructure facilities at Kisumu Port. The PS earlier on toured Kisumu Airport.

The Government has challenged other stakeholders to help grow Kisumu International Airport, which is struggling to live up to its international status even after a Sh3.3 billion facelift.

Transport Principal Secretary Nyakera Irungu said the State is looking into ways of repositioning the airport to improve returns on heavy financial investments pumped into its upgrade. But he called on players in the private sector to also devise ways of keeping the airport busy.

He said improved commercial operations around the airport was one of the ways of changing fortunes for the facility which is underperforming compared to its capacity.

“The private sector should approach us with interests because we have put in place the necessary infrastructure for the airport to live up to its status as a nucleus regional pathway,” he said.

Mr Irungu said the Government was banking on the facility to grow trade and strengthen Kenya’s dominance as East Africa’s economic leader. He, however, added that further improvements will be pegged on how well the current infrastructure is utilised.

“This facility is part our infrastructure expansion masterplan and we have come up with an integrated approach to improve and re-position its full potential,” he said.

International flights

Although the PS said the Government could not directly influence passenger growth at the airport citing transit nature of operations, he expressed confidence that expansion and installation of key services would translate into more regular international flights received at the facility.

The airport has installed facilities and services such as Immigration, Port-health and Customs so as to expand its capacity for handle international flights.

“As the demand for such services improve, coupled with an ongoing facelift, we expect to have regular international flights,” he said.

The facility is dominated by domestic operators plying the Kisumu-Nairobi route, although it has received non-scheduled craft from countries such as South Africa, Seychelles, Nigeria, Europe, France, Italy and Sweden. Local flights are those affiliated to Kenya Airways Ltd and Fly540 Kenya.