Kenya: Air Freight Trade Via Moi Airport Takes a Nose Dive

But a spot check at the airport's cargo terminal, leased to KQ and which handles over 400 tonnes, revealed the extent of depression of the trade through the airport, as only little cargo not exceeding 50kg could be seen.

Moi airport has been popular with vegetable, fruit, crab and fish exports for local and regional traders as most flights fly directly to European markets. Other cargo throughput at the airport include garments from Export Processing Zones (EPZ) companies based in the region, handicraft, day-old-chicks, aircraft spare parts and other kinds of dry cargo.

"Last year, there was a beehive of activity as far as fish trade to Italy, Germany and the Netherlands was concerned. We had to arrange shifts of packing the consignments at the terminal. General cargo was done from 10am to 11pm, followed by vegetables from 11pm to 3am and fresh fish from 3am to 10am," said Mr Mungatsia.

He warned that the trendwould likely to drop as almost all charter planes that land at the airport are yet to confirm the dates they would resume.

Though KAA is optimistic that the situation will return to normal soon, local businessmen will have to brace for hard times as the cargo business at the airport tends to follow tourism trends.

This means that if tourism will not be back on track then fishmongers from Kisumu will not be able to reach the European markets. "Moi airport, unlike Jomo Kenyatta, does not have cargo planes. The planes that carry cargo are those that carry tourists.

This means that the freight business in this airport will only return to normal after tourism has done the same," says KAA coast region marketing officer, Charles Mwaita.

However, Mr Mwaita added that sometimes even booming tourism can be disadvantageous to the cargo trade through Moi airport as some airlines give priority to passengers. In 2006, says Mr Mwaita, Martinair, which carries fresh fish from Mombasa to Amsterdam, reduced cargo tonnage while other airlines which carry fresh produce to Germany and Italy also opted to carry more passengers than cargo due to high returns from the passenger business.

Blue Panorama used a B757, which carries less cargo, in 2007 as opposed to the B767 in 2006 while Jetlink airline which used to carry a big percentage of cargo in 2006, drastically reduced frequency in 2007, reveals Mr Mwaita.