
Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (IATA: NBO, ICAO: HKJK) is an international airport serving Nairobi, the capital and largest city of Kenya. It is located in the Embakasi suburb, approximately 18 kilometres (11 mi) southeast of Nairobi city centre. The airport has scheduled flights to destinations in over 50 countries. Originally named Embakasi Airport, the airport's name was changed in 1978 to honour Jomo Kenyatta, who was Kenya's first president and Prime Minister. The airport served over 9 million passengers and over 364,000 tonnes of cargo in 2024, making it the sixth busiest airport in passenger traffic in Africa. It is the busiest out of the four international airports in Kenya, the other three international airports being Kisumu International Airport, Eldoret International Airport and Moi International Airport in Mombasa. The postal code for Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) is 00501.

1.319°S, 36.928°E · 1.625 m s. n. m. (5.330 ft)
Lengths and surfaces from the public OurAirports register; open runways only.
Tower
ATIS (automatic information)
Approach
Apron
Reference frequencies for enthusiasts, from OurAirports (community database, public domain), checked on Oct 16, 2026. They may be outdated or incomplete and do not replace the AIP or current charts: not for navigation. In Europe the published frequency may be an 8.33 kHz channel (e.g., 118.505 for 118.500). In MHz.
Discussions about building the airport date back to 1945. At that time, the colonial power—Britain—and its national airline, BOAC, were worried that the existing airport at Eastleigh was inadequate for post-War civilian airliners. The costs of improving Eastleigh versus developing a new airport occupied planners for eight years. Who would pay was a major issue. The task was by no means straightforward, and many problems, largely of a civil engineering nature, had to be overcome before the runway could be built. An extensive amount of the airport's construction was done utilizing forced labourers, many of whom were suspected Kenya Land and Freedom Army members. Due to the enormous pressure to finish the airport and the high amount of labour necessary, the labourers were worked to the point where some of them died of exhaustion. The working conditions were so poor that there were reports of suicides and self-mutilation among the labourers. On Sunday 9 March 1958, Embakasi Airport (now JKIA) was opened by the last colonial governor of Kenya, Sir Evelyn Baring. At the time in 1958, Nairobi was one of the few towns in the world that could boast of a 1965 airport with an expansion option at hand. The number of aircraft movements then was less than 600 per month. The airport architect was strongly influenced by the design of Kloten, Zurich, in the planning and design of Embakasi, although similarities were by no means obvious. Both airports are arranged so that arrival passengers can see completely through the building; the minimum of signs is required. And although Embakasi was designed to meet Nairobi's particular needs, both airports shared a lightness and spaciousness that was at the time extraordinarily refreshing. The fitting and colour schemes employed at the then Embakasi Airport were first-class. 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 and roadway 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. In October 1994, a British Airways Concorde landed at the airport for purposes of testing the aircraft's performance at high altitude. On 10 June 2008, Kenya Vision 2030 was launched by President Mwai Kibaki. Under the vision, JKIA's aging infrastructure was to be upgraded to World Class standards. New terminals and runway upgrades were to be added in phases. The African Development Bank carried out an Environmental Impact Assessment on the development of Phase 1 of the proposed Green Field Terminal (GFT) which was expected to increase the capacity of JKIA to about 18.5 million passengers annually by the year 2030. The Greenfield Terminal project was to encompass the construction of a four level terminal building comprising a central processing area, a transit hotel, landside retail centres, arrivals and departures plaza. Ancillary facilities which would have included an access road, car parking, access taxiways, Ground Service Equipment (GSE) and bus parking areas. On 29 March 2016, the KES 56 billion (US$560 million) Greenfield Terminal Project was terminated by Kenya Airports Authority because the contractor failed to secure funds, thus ending Kenya's vision of having the largest terminal in Africa.
Airlines using it as a main base (hub)
Other airlines with direct routes
Airlines with current passenger routes from here, according to Wikipedia route tables cross-checked from both ends (October 2026).
Photo: li yong · CC BY-SA 2.0 · view original
Data from OurAirports (public domain) · destinations and airlines from Wikipedia route tables (CC BY-SA, 2026), unless another source is given · profile and photo from Wikidata/Wikimedia Commons (CC0 / CC) · summary and history from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
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This page was last updated on October 15, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, October 15). Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO). Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/NBO
MLA
“Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO).” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 15 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airport/NBO. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO).” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 15, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/NBO.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO). Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/NBO (Accessed: 16 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_airport_nbo,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-15},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/NBO},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/NBO}},
urldate = {2026-10-16},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-16}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/NBO |title=Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO) |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-15 |access-date=2026-10-16 |language=en}}