This archive report was first published on 23 August 2021.
Kenya's air travel sector is slowly recovering from the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with visitor arrivals at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and Moi International Airport (MIA) increasing in June 2021.
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the total number of visitors arriving through the two main airports rose from 33,888 persons in May 2021 to 48,532 persons in June 2021.
The number of passengers who landed at JKIA also increased from 70,277 persons in May 2021 to 90,899 persons in June 2021, while the number of passengers who embarked at JKIA by port of destination rose from 70,465 persons to 83,584 persons over the same period.
However, the total monthly throughput at the port of Mombasa dropped from 3,030.93 thousand metric tonnes in May 2021 to 2,911.68 thousand metric tonnes in June 2021.
Despite this, the increase in visitor arrivals at JKIA and MIA is a welcome sign for the country's tourism sector, which has been severely impacted by the pandemic.
As reported by Deloitte, tourist arrivals declined by 78.4 percent in 2020 compared to the 2019 average, resulting in a 99.7 percent decline in earnings from Sh163.6 billion in 2019 to Sh0.5 billion in 2020.
