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Update Nov. 23, 2024: Kenya’s president on Nov. 22 canceled the tender for Adani Group, which has been charged with bribery and fraud by the U.S. government. Analysts see opportunity for U.S. companies now to take the lead in airport development within Kenya.
Kenya’s president jetting to Atlanta on a private plane earlier this year added fuel to the fire of criticism about his U.S. visit.
But if airport officials on both sides have their way, William Ruto and any subsequent Kenyan leaders would be able to fly commercial next time they come to drum up business in the Georgia capital.
The airport authority in the East African nation is eyeing a partnership with Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which has already signed so-called “sister-airport agreements” with six other African countries, most recently South Africa.
According to the Atlanta airport, which for years has made the training of airport officials a key tenet of its give-back programs, “substantial progress” has been made toward striking the deal with the Kenya Airports Authority.
While these agreements tend to focus on operational best practices and technical exchanges, they’ve also helped reinforce the argument for nonstop flights — as in the case of South Africa — and drive discussions around new ones.
“This partnership has the potential to enhance connectivity, compress travel time for passengers, and elevate the status of both airports as key aviation hubs in their respective regions,” Henry Ogoye, acting managing director of the Kenya Airports Authority, wrote in a letter to Olubunmi Jinadu of Interglobe IEG, an Atlanta-based consultancy that has been given a mandate to advocate for the proposed agreement on the ground in Atlanta.
When Namibia struck a deal with Atlanta in July, airport officials on both sides talked up the economic growth that increased air service promises. The sparsely populated country known for its desert safaris and other tourism offerings has been successful in driving more flights to Windhoek, its capital, via South Africa.
Kenya, a nation of more than 50 million people, is a bona fide tourism and tech hub with a rising middle class and a well-educated workforce that has attracted headquarters of multinational companies and NGOs.
Mr. Ogoye also noted in the letter that the authority would be keen to compare notes and best practices with its counterparts at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg and in Cape Town, both of which have nonstop links with Atlanta that were trumpeted at South Africa’s own recent sister-airport signing in Atlanta.
In an interview with Global Atlanta by phone, Mr. Ogoye also emphasized investment opportunities at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, which desperately needs to upgrade facilities to keep pace with demand.
The Nairobi airport welcomed 8.2 million travelers in 2023, up 25 percent from the previous year. Projections have that number doubling in the next five years to 16.3 million, then again to at least 30 million by 2050 as aviation takes off in East Africa.
It’s a different story on the cargo side, where the 1.3 million tons processed last year occupied just 30 percent of the potential throughput, Mr. Ogoye said.
“At the moment, we are looking at ways and means of enhancing JKIA for it to take its rightful place as the aviation hub for eastern and central Africa,” Mr. Ogoye told Global Atlanta in June.
Since then, the airport has been in talks with India’s Adani Group on a public-private partnership that would see the conglomerate invest $1.85 billion in improvements, including a new runway, in exchange for a 30-year lease to operate the airport.
Kenyans have protested the deal, citing a lack of transparency. Airport strikes as recently as last month left passengers stranded and the deal’s future in limbo. The airport has been a consistent flashpoint since anti-government protests that emerged in June against tax hikes in the so-called “Finance Bill.” Mr. Ruto pulled the bill and dismissed most of his cabinet after nationwide protests that left 60 dead.
Meanwhile at JKIA, the needs are plentiful, Mr. Ogoye said. Runways are handling 30 aircraft movements per hour and will soon hit their max of 35, meaning more capacity will eventually be needed. Aircraft parking space is tight. Dining options inside the terminals are limited, and hotel brands are vying for land concessions nearby. The Afreximbank is exploring setting up a quality control center to ensure Kenyan agricultural exports meet international standards, opening up more options for selling Kenyan produce abroad, he added.
A Solid Business Case?
Even with infrastructure growth, however, private airlines would be the ones deciding to serve Kenya, and an Atlanta route would require a solid business case.
Delta Air Lines Inc.’s SkyTeam partner Kenya Airways flies from Nairobi to New York, meaning Delta travelers from Atlanta can book a one-stop flight to the Kenyan capital.
Ethiopian Airlines, a new entrant into Atlanta in 2023 with a nonstop flight to Addis Ababa, also boasts convenient flights to Nairobi via that gateway.
Still, a nonstop connection to Atlanta would be vital for a concerted effort to grow business between the Southeast U.S. and Kenya, said James Kitavi, custom acquisition and growth head at the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Mr. Kitavi and other top leaders from the national chamber accompanied Mr. Ruto to Atlanta before traveling to Washington on a state visit, meeting with companies including Coca-Cola Co. and Tyler Perry Studios.
“Atlanta is where the business happens,” Mr. Kitavi told Global Atlanta. “Forget about the capital, where it is all about politics and policies — where does the business happen? Look at Fortune 500 companies — how many are operating out of Atlanta? For us as a chamber of commerce and industry, those are the indicators that we look at.”
Mr. Kitavi spoke to Global Atlanta at the chamber building in Nairobi, where protests over the finance bill, animated in part by what many Kenyans saw as the president’s profligate spending during a visit to the U.S., raged just outside.
Still, the momentum for bilateral business built by the March trip was undeniable, said Mr. Kitavi, who added that Delta Air Lines has a chance to be “at the center of this conversation.”
“Looking at the reception that Ruto got in the U.S. was amazing, but we need to translate it into something tangible, something sustainable, and only businesses can do this,” he said.
The chamber planned to bring a large delegation to the Atlanta Black Chambers Global Opportunities Conference in October before it was scaled back. Some entrepreneurs from Kenya were still among the attendees.
The Kenyan chamber also hopes to bring a delegation of governors from most of Kenya’s 47 counties to the U.S., including Atlanta, though visas for government officials proved to be a challenge even during the Ruto visit.
Mr. Kitavi added that flights will be key for Kenya’s efforts to extract the full value of locally produced agricultural goods. Kenya-grown tulips are auctioned in Amsterdam to the world, while the same happens with tea and coffee in Dubai, he said.
Moses Kiarie Ndirangu, governor of Kenya’s Nyandarua County, a rural area about a two-hour drive from Nairobi, would like to see greater market access for potatoes and other produce from his region.
He’d also like to welcome more Americans to experience the majesty of the Aberdare mountains and their towering waterfalls, highland lakes brimming with fish and hippos, and high-altitude marathons.
Atlanta, which he visited with Mr. Ruto in March, would make the most sense for a new link, he said in an interview.
“The next flight from Kenya to America should be Atlanta,” the governor, popularly known as Badilisha or “Change,” told Global Atlanta at his office in Nyandarua.
It would also be a great symbol of American commitment at a time when Kenyans find themselves increasingly having to choose between the U.S. and China, the latter being quicker to make investment decisions.
“America —their engagement is huge and good, but they take a lot of time, and the world that we are in today doesn’t have time to wait for that,” Badilisha said. “We are comfortable with America. Americans are like our brothers, like our right hand. But when you reach for the right hand for a long time but it’s not coming, you have to try the left.”
An air link to Atlanta is not a new goal for Kenya. Delta planned a direct connection with a brief stopover in Dakar, Senegal, way back in 2009, but it was nixed over supposed security concerns and never returned.
In 2019, Kenya’s then-ambassador to the United States again expressed interest in finally seeing that connection realized.