The expansion of Malindi International Airport marks another significant step towards its complete upgrading.
Yesterday Mohammed Swazuri, Director of the National Land Commission, Kenya's cadastral corporation, declared that he had compensated the owners of 25 acres of land in Kwachocha, the neighborhood near Malindi airport, with 424 million shillings, equivalent to about 3.5 million euros.
Initially, Kshs was initially set aside. 300 million, but after the owners' requests a further 124 million were added.
It is a significant move to resume the journey towards the complete implementation of the international airport, which took place after the meeting in Malindi between Minister of Tourism Najib Balala and the Italian entrepreneur Flavio Briatore, who assured Balala that he will not sell his property if there is the willingness of the government to provide Malindi with a stopover capable of hosting direct flights from Europe and be able to manage a traffic of arrivals and departures.
In this case, the new land acquired will constitute the space needed to accommodate six more hangars for aircraft, while at this point the final step is the acquisition of the space needed to lengthen the runway.
But already as it is, Malindi airport could organize itself to receive flights from other African countries (such as the Ethiopian from Addis Ababa, which has already applied for it, as anticipated exclusively by our portal here) and create interesting links for Pan-African tourism and connections with Italy and other intercontinental nations.