Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) will from July double the amounts air passengers pay to access its facilities as it seeks cash to upgrade airports. The authority has received approval from the Finance minister Robinson Githae to increase the service charge for international passengers from $20 to $40 and domestic travellers from KES300 to KES500.The charge is normally included in the tickets and carriers reckon that they will increase fares in line with the passenger fee.More than two million passengers pass through Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) annually and this means that the authority will collect more than 6.7 billion.“The service charge collected is very significant in the on-going improvement of our airports,” said KAA communications manager Dominic Ngigi.The authority is expected to generate KES9 billion in the year ending June and the state is forecasting its revenues to increase to KES11.6 billion in the 12 months to next June, according to the recent Kenyan government estimates on the expenditures of state- owned firms.Airlines say that the move will make tickets more costly at a time when the volatility of the shilling against major currencies has kept air fares expensive.
