WILHKNW

Nairobi Wilson Airport

Nairobi, Kenya · Africa

Africa Africa/Nairobi

18direct destinations

7airlines

2runways

1,540 mLongest runway

1933opened

Wilson Airport (IATA: WIL, ICAO: HKNW) is an airport in Nairobi, Kenya. It has flights to many regional airports in Kenya while Nairobi's main airport, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, serves domestic and many international destinations. The airport serves domestic flights to Kenyan cities, and an international flight to Tanzania.

Location

1.322°S, 36.815°E · 1.687 m s. n. m. (5.536 ft)

General data

CountryKenya

CityNairobi

IATA codeWIL

ICAO codeHKNW

Coordinates1.322°S, 36.815°E

Elevation1.687 m s. n. m. (5.536 ft)

Time zoneAfrica/Nairobi

Runways2

Longest runway1,540 m

OperatorKenya Airports Authority

Opened1933

Direct destinations18

Official website

Runways · 2

14/32

Length1,540 m5,052 ft

Width23 m75 ft

SurfaceAsphalt

07/25

Length1,462 m4,797 ft

Width22 m72 ft

SurfaceAsphalt

Lighted✓

Lengths and surfaces from the public OurAirports register; open runways only.

Radio frequencies · 1

Tower

118.100WILSON TWR

Look for a live feed on LiveATC External site; not every airport has a feed.

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 They may be outdated or incomplete and do not replace the AIP or current charts: not for navigation.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.

History

The airport was established as Nairobi West Aerodrome in 1929 by Florence Kerr Wilson, a wealthy widow, whose airline Wilson Airways was based there. Built at a cost of £50,000 (£3.2 million in 2020), Mrs Wilson hired pilot Tom Campbell Black to run the airport. After the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the airport, its aircraft fleet and its pilots were taken over by the then colonial government and made a Fleet Air Arm base until after the war when it continued functioning as a civilian airport. In 1962, it was named Wilson Airport in honour of its founder who died in 1968.

Airlines operating here · 7

Other airlines with direct routes

Safarilink Aviation Airkenya Express Skyward Airlines Eastafrican.com ALS – Aircraft Leasing Services 748 Air Services Renegade Air

Airlines with current passenger routes from here, according to Wikipedia route tables cross-checked from both ends (October 2026).

Photo: Kreuzschnabel · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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).

See all airports Search “Nairobi”

Cite

To cite this page in academic work, an article or Wikipedia, choose the style and copy the reference. The access date is today.

This page was last updated on October 15, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 15). Nairobi Wilson Airport (WIL). Retrieved October 22, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/WIL

MLA

“Nairobi Wilson Airport (WIL).” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 15 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airport/WIL. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “Nairobi Wilson Airport (WIL).” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 15, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/WIL.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) Nairobi Wilson Airport (WIL). Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/WIL (Accessed: 22 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_airport_wil,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{Nairobi Wilson Airport (WIL)}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-15},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/WIL},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/WIL}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-22},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-22}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/WIL |title=Nairobi Wilson Airport (WIL) |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-15 |access-date=2026-10-22 |language=en}}