page_title: Jomo Kenyatta International Airport
section_title: 1970s, 1980s and 1990s
hierarchical_section_title: Jomo Kenyatta International Airport / History / 1970s, 1980s and 1990s
caption_attribution_description: English: KQ B707 in NBO
context_page_description: Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, is an international airport in Nairobi, the capital of and largest city in Kenya. Located in the Embakasi suburb 18 kilometres southeast of Nairobi's central business district, the airport has scheduled flights to destinations in over 50 countries. Originally named Embakasi Airport, the airport's name was changed in 1978 to honor Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya's first president and prime minister. The airport served over 7 million passengers in 2016, making it the seventh busiest airport in passenger traffic on the continent.
context_section_description: In 1972, the World Bank approved funds for further expansion of the airport, including a new international and domestic passenger terminal building, the airport's first dedicated cargo and freight terminal, new taxiways, associated aprons, internal roads, car parks, police and fire stations, a State Pavilion, airfield androadway lighting, fire hydrant system, water, electrical, telecommunications and sewage systems, a dual carriageway passenger access road, security, drainage and the building of the main access road to the airport (Airport South Road). The total cost of the project was over US$29 million (US$111.8 million in 2013 dollars). On 14 March 1978, construction of the current terminal building was completed on the other side of the airport's single runway and opened by President Kenyatta. The airport was again renamed, this time in honour of President Kenyatta after his death about five months later on 22 August 1978.
  In October 1993, a British Airways Concorde landed at the airport for purposes of testing the aircraft's performance at high altitude.
caption: A Kenya Airways Boeing 707 at a Nairobi Airshow in 1977
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