Zambia Airports Corporation Limited (ZACL) says works on Lusaka’s new Kenneth Kaunda International Airport (KKIA) are nearing completion.
ZACL Managing Director Fumu Mondoloka has told ZANIS in an interview that the project will be complete within this quarter.
Mr Mondoloka says works on the state of the art new passenger terminal are almost done and that the entire project now stands at 92 percent complete.
The Managing Director said once complete, the airport will be a hub for the Southern African region in line with the National Transport Policy.
“We are doing a lot of work towards that aspiration, we hope we can make it a fitting tribute to the man it is named after,” Mr Mondoloka said.
Currently, the airport which is the largest in Zambia has a capacity of two million passengers per annum and is expected to increase to about six million once commissioned.
Leading airlines both local and international, including Air Tanzania, Rwanda Air, SA Airlink, Ethiopian Airlines, Emirates, CemAir and KLM in partnership with Kenya Airways operate out of this airport.
The new airport which is being constructed at a total cost of 360 million United States dollars by China Jiangxi Corporation will house a new passenger terminal, a hotel, Rescue and Fire Services Station, Air Traffic Control Tower, Presidential Pavilion, Cargo Terminal, a Shopping Mall and an Office Complex.
Another grandoius scheme ment to earn the statehouse gang commissions…….
6 million passengers per year or 500,000 per month…….or 100,000 per week !
Totally unrealistic
You can see how zambia is being sold massive projects just so lungu and his gang earn commissions ..,……
Continued from above……
6 million passengers/pa = 500,000/ month = 100,000/ week = 14,000 very day including Sundays
Which is about 140 large planes landing every day in zambia…….
Kwena, lungu and your friends , you know how to chew commissions……
We have been hearing this story of being almost complete for the last two years. We will believe it when we see it.
Atleast $130 million over realisim……if zambia had sober realistic none corrupt budget management….
Commissions earned over $54 million for that $360 million price tag……
Journalists must be alert about political talk and not just parrrot it. Be clear thats why you are reporters. “within this quarter.” what is that? How is this quarter defined?
ANOTHER ELECTION PLOY
THIS HAS BEEN WAITING TO HAPPEN ITS EVEN BEEN MENTIONED BEFORE
AND ANOTHER BRIEF APPEARANCE BY THE PRESIDENT THATS IF THEY LET HIM LE$AVE STATE HOUSE OF COURSE
SORRY PF LUSAKA HAS ALREADY BEEN GIVEN TO THE OPPOSITON
The story is this: the current terminal runs at half capacity, we have fewer than 1 million arrivals a year. As for congestion that is because airlines arrive when they want, not in organised slots allocated by Zambian ground control in an orderly fashion. Building a bigger airport will not draw more people- no one flys to see the airport. Airlines do not fly to Zambia because of the high price of aviation fuel-those that do have a second leg (Emirates with Zimbabwe) and they fill up there, where it is cheaper. Also inaccurate: KLM does not fly to Lusaka any longer. So we have spent vast sums on a vanity.
You can bet your bottom dollar that one week before the election Edgar China Lungu will cut the ribbon! And he will take all the honours, while everyone knows that Zambia didn’t pay even ONE ngwee for the construction – everything was paid for by the Chinese government in exchange for ownership of Zesco!
Monies were provided by the Chinks but still not complete …typical of a reckless govt this grossly inflated airport should have been open last year
Yes but you can bet your bottom dollar that Edgar China Lungu will cut the ribbon one week before the election! And claim all credits for it! While the Chinese paid everything in exchange for ownership of Zesco!
Yes but you can bet your bottom dollar that Edgar Ch!na Lungu will cut the ribbon one week before the election! And claim all credits for it! While the Chinese paid everything in exchange for ownership of Zesco!
Yes but you can bet your bottom dollar that our corrupt president will cut the ribbon one week before the election! And claim all credits for it! While the Chinese paid everything in exchange for ownership of Zesco!
Typical of some negative Zambians. For me who flies in and out of Lusaka every 6 to 8 weeks this is a very welcome development and very long overdue! The current KKIA looks like a bus terminal. Look at the amenities, check in area, security, baggage collection, immigration and customs services… Come on!!! Let’s for once start thinking without our political affiliations
IllSayWhatIWant – You are the typical mindset of the poor man who is gets an upgrade on his outside pit latrine to an in-door flashing toilet…you are happy without thinking about the costs. I am in the industry and I can tell you for how much we borrowed we are getting the short-end of of the stick and the bills of quantities was tempered with by Chitotela then minister. Oh I forgot you are just happy you have a 5 star airport no regard to the debt being passed on to your children.
This airport was completed 14 months and was on the fitout stage when ZACL released photos …what they are waiting noone knows apart from the usual ..politics ..Lazy Lungu only thinks of himself and elections. As someone as stated dont be surprised if he cuts the ribbon 7 days before elections with a…
Same old claims. In 2018 (check your archives) it was stated that the airport would be ready in October 2019. Then it was even claimed that it was going to be six months ahead of schedule – meaning possibly being commissioned in April 2019! This is prior to the pandemic, mind you, so no excuses of the kind.
This regime has never known where it is at any given time. By the way, this was going to be a white elephant in normal times, with all the regional aviation industry struggling but now it even makes it worse. Perhaps with a new regime – which will still require mega policies to attract passengers. It’s not a new airport that brings people, it’s what you have or can offer as a country.
GREAT.
EARLY NEXT YEAR ZAMBIA AIRWAYS MUST COMMENCE. WE HAVE WAITED FOR LONG. THOUGH, THE DELAY WAS GOD-SENT. OTHERWISE COVID-19 WOULD HAVE REALLY MESSED UP THE AIRLINE IN IT’S BEGINING AND TO THE AMUSEMENT OF UPND CHAPS WHO WISH ZAMBIA BAD EVEN IN THEIR DREAMS. LESA ALITEMWA ZAMBIA ALITANGILILA KUNTANSHI.
There is a lot of ignorance here. Then again it’s coming from a lot of frustrated and angry souls in life.
Governing is always a continuous process. The construction plans and project of the airport was started by MMD. It was supported by UPND MPs who sit on Public Accounts Committee in the Parliament. And supported by HH.
Today this project is getting finished under the the umbrella of a PF Government.
Now some people are not happy that it’s about to finish. And if we did not have a construction of this airport, the same people will be screaming that why has Zambia not upgraded the Airport.
AT THE RATE 2,000,000 PASSENGERS PASSING THROUGH THE GATES KKI TRANSLATES TO 5,479 PASSENGERS PER DAY OR 21 PLANES WITH A CAPACITY OF 250. IS THIS REALLY REALISTIC? THE PROJECTION OF 6 MILLION PER ANNUM MAY BE IN THE NEXT 10 YEARS. OTHERWISE IT WILL MEAN 33% OF OUR POPULATION BEING ABLE TO TRAVEL BY AIR. THESE STATISTICS FAR OUT MATCH THE ROAD TRANSPORT SECTOR.
ALL A LOAD OF HOG WASH BEING PUT OUT BY GOVERNMENT
A WASTE OF MONEY
WE COULD HAVE HAD A MODERN AIRPORT AT HALF THE COST
ALSO ALL VISITORS AND TRAVELLERS GROSSLY OVER STATED
BIG IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER KIKIKI
It’s about whether a ‘mammoth’ new airport was required in the circumstances or the old one simply needed to be improved and expanded at a much lower cost. It’s the timing and assessment of what is happening in the region around aviation and where the projection of ‘passenger numbers’ comes from. Sri Lanka once built a huge airport that eventually ‘no one flew to’. One was also built near Madrid in 2008 with projections of huge passenger numbers and job creation. It closed in 2012 – the structure is still there. Build a brand new airport from scratch if you can assess real demand in the future – not build one first and hope.
You’ve taken too long. We need a copper statue of KK to be added as a unique feature to the airport.
ZAMBIA AIRWAYS ??? KIKIKI
LOSING MILLIONS ALREADY PAYING SALARIES ETC ETC ETC
IllSayWhatIWant
All very well and good if you want a flashy airport. This is public money, whether it is debt or from taxes. Should we be spending it on something that will have minimal additional value over the current airport and which will struggle to compete with established hubs because they already serve the limited routes and Zambian fuel duty makes Lusaka uneconomic. But more importantly: do we not have more important things to spend this money on? We have severe child malnutrition, free meals at school perhaps? We have poor rail infrastructure, maintenance and new lines perhaps? Power cuts, solar farms perhaps? All would have an effect on the majority of our people far beyond an airport used by few and not itself creating jobs.
Open it in the new dispensation around 15 August, tax payers have already started feeling the negative effects of these projects that have siphoned their meagre earning s nxt to Zero.
No journalist reports something that is NEARLY done. News is only made when something is complete. So ba LT stop propagandaling for the PF
Terrible Chinese engineering coupled with Zambians aversion to maintenance work means that this building is doomed before it’s commissioned.