Jomo Kenyatta International Airport declared fifth best in Africa

NAIROBI: Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) has been rated the fifth best airport in Africa.

Airports Council International (ACI) recognized JKIA for its excellence in customer service in the prestigious 2014 Airports Council International (ACI) Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards.

"This recognition is a testament to the airport's on-going commitment to service excellence," partly reads a statement from Kenya Airports Authority (KAA).

The recognition comes months after the opening of the airport's new Terminal 1A.

The terminal, which has 3 floors and includes duty free shops, a food court, customer lounges, a mini market among other facilities, has a capacity to handle one-way peak hour traffic of 1,500 passengers.

It has also improved the customer experience at JKIA, besides guaranteeing operational efficiency, boosting security and improved quality of service to airport users.

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KAA Managing Director Lucy Mbugua noted that the recognition was timely following an ongoing major upgrading and modernisation works set to stamp its position as a regional hub.

"The stature of JKIA has grown significantly in recent years with the increased passengers and cargo traffic into and out of the facility. We expect even further growth going forward as more capacity is unlocked by on-going works, which will improve level of service, security and controlled access to meet international standards, thus taking advantage of its strategic location of JKIA to position it as the premier aviation hub of Africa," said Mbugua.

The leading airport is found in Mauritius followed by Durban, Cape Town then Johannesburg in South Africa.

The on-going works at JKIA include the construction of Terminal 2; expected to be opened at the end of this month.

The new prefab terminal has a capacity to handle 2.5 million passengers annually and will cater for both international and domestic departures and arrivals.

The additional capacity injected by the new terminal brings the capacity of JKIA to 7.5 million passengers annually.

JKIA at the moment handles an estimated 6.5 million passengers annually, the completion of Terminal 2 is a huge step forward in the concerted efforts made to expand and modernize JKIA.