Companies

Aviation firm demands new gate to its JKIA premises

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Terminal 1A at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. FILE PHOTO | NMG

African Express Airways (Afex), an aviation firm operating at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, has written to the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) seeking to be facilitated with an independent gate to access its premises at the airport.

The firm says it cannot access its offices, which is adjacent to a plot that is the subject of an ongoing legal tussle between Kenya Airways (KQ) and 748 Air Services.

In a letter to the manager of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), the firm’s managing director Musa Bulhan asked KAA to provide it with new alternative access gate after KQ allegedly blocked the aviation firm from accessing its offices.

Two weeks ago, the firm obtained an order from Environment and Land court, allowing them to access its premises, on temporary basis, pending a ruling on September 23.

Mr Bulhan says their workers have been unable to access its facilities yet they have been operating at JKIA since 1995.

“Kindly note that African Express Airways (K) Ltd is not part of 748 Air Service and we continue to operate as an independent entity,” he said.

“Lately however, the unresolved legal tussles between 748 Air services and Kenya Airways in which KQ is claiming ownership of the plot 9042/58 and secured eviction orders to remove 748 Air Services has affected us greatly, and we are unable to access our premises because KQ has denied us the access after the court order was given,” the letter reads.

Mr Bulhan says the firm acknowledges that JKIA might not have budgeted for the new gate but it should be allowed to finance the construction of the independent gate once it is approved.

KQ had sought to evict 748 Air Services from the JKIA saying the firm was a trespasser but the aviation firm obtained orders, stopping its eviction, pending the determination of the dispute.

“We have been accessing our facilities through a crash gate on Airport North Road, which was constructed by KAA and is located next to a land that is L.R. No 9042/583 which is adjacent to 9042/584 through which we always accessed our offices,” Mr Bulhan said.