JKIA eyes top global fast-food chains in tender

An airline’s cabin crew at a past event. KAA is seeking global fast-food chains to open shop at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. FILE 

By WANGUI MAINA, pmaina@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) seeks global catering firms to invest at regional air travel hub.
• The airport’s manager on Monday issued a tender for the development and management of an international brand fast food outlet at JKIA’s new Unit 4.
• Bidders are expected to provide a list of at least 10 outlets where the international brand operates and shall be expected to have experience in operating in an up-market environment.

Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) is seeking global fast-food chains like McDonalds to open shop at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.


The airport’s manager on Monday issued a tender for the development and management of an international brand fast food outlet at JKIA’s new Unit 4, expected to be completed before March.

The unit will also host a mini-supermarket and other food outlets meeting global standards as the airport races to cement its status as a regional commercial hub

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“Kenya Airports Authority wishes to engage an internationally reputable firm with experience in operating an international brand fast food outlet, to manage a similar facility at the new terminal Unit 4,” said the tender notice.

The Unit 4 is the extension of the exiting airport and is expected to handle 2.5 million passengers that will ease congestion at the East Africa’s main air travel hub.

The airport was built in the 1970s to handle 2.5 million passengers annually and has been struggling to handle more than six million people a year as its regional importance grew.

This has seen KAA race to host facilities like hotels at the airport that will offer comfort to foreigners and local travellers who have developed an appetite for Western brands.

Bidders are expected to provide a list of at least 10 outlets where the international brand operates and shall be expected to have experience in operating in an up-market environment which includes shopping malls, airports and train stations.

These fast-food companies would include Kentucky Fried Chicken, which opened shop in Kenya in 2011 and US-based Subway, which opened its first outlet in Nairobi last year. Other brands include McDonalds, Burger King, Naked Pizza and Nandos.

Kenya has been attracting major retail and fast food retail brands with the growth of the mall culture.

Analysts and property developers also say that a combination of the growth in the mall culture and on-going developments in roads and other infrastructure are other incentives for global retailers to enter the Kenyan market.

The KAA search for international fast-food chains comes weeks after it offered German multinational Deutsche Lufthansa a tender for a second in-flight catering unit at the JKIA, ending the six-decade monopoly of NAS Servair that is set to spark a price war.

READ: Lufthansa ups stakes with JKIA food unit

The firm, through its catering unit LSG Sky Chefs, won the international tender floated by the authority in July 2012.