On Monday at around 10 pm, a number of travellers stranded on long queues at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) Terminal 1A complained of the slow pace of clearance despite reopening of Terminals 1B and 1C.
Some blamed the delay on the high-level influx of African presidents and world leaders who were in the country for the Africa Climate Summit at Kenyatta International Convention Centre(KICC).
A highly placed source at Kenya Airports Authority (KAA), however, refuted the claims indicating that the airport was well equipped to handle VVIP teams, including the delegations of over 20 Heads of State which have already jetted in.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke on phone, the source explained that JKIA sporadically experiences a surge in queues, especially between the 10:00 pm and 5:00am time slot.
The source associated the surge to a high number of large aircrafts scheduled to take off within the time slots thereby driving an influx of passengers into the international departures terminal.
"When I checked the time stamp, it was around 10:00pm. At that time, we usually have the wide bodied aircrafts leaving and turning around. Usually, we have those heavy days and yesterday was one of them," explained the representative.
"At that prime time, is when we get all the wide bodied aircrafts leaving like Lufthansa, Kenya Airways and others."
Regarding VIP arrivals, the representative explained that JKIA was well equipped with a fully furnished lounge to handle the Heads of State and other world leaders.
"It has nothing to do with the presidents because they are received at the Presidential Pavillion and there is a VVIP delegation and lounges."
Ranked as the seventh busiest airport in Africa, JKIA welcomes approximately 6.6 million passengers annually and handles over 360,000 tonnes of cargo.
Initially, the long queues had worsened after KAA shut down two terminals, 1B and 1C, in January 2022 for refurbishments and screenings during the Covid-19 pandemic.
"International travellers to expect longer processing times and passenger queues during peak hours of 8pm to 11 pm at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport’s departure Terminal 1A. This situation has arisen partly due to intensified health screening procedures instituted to combat the Covid-19 pandemic coupled with significant traffic growth normally witnessed at this time of the year," KAA cautioned at the time.
"The unavailability of JKIA’s Terminals 1B and 1C which are at advanced stages of refurbishment has compounded the situation."
The terminals were, however, reopened in November 2022.
