Kenya’s aviation sector is entering a new phase of acceleration, with Uganda joining Egypt, South Africa, Tanzania, Ethiopia and a widening circle of African partners in driving record-breaking passenger traffic, deeper codeshare cooperation and rapid gains in regional connectivity. As Kenya consolidates its role as an East African hub, new data and recent route developments show how neighbouring states are feeding traffic through Nairobi and Mombasa, turning Kenya into one of the continent’s most dynamic crossroads for business and leisure travel.
Passenger Traffic Surges as Kenya Cements Its Hub Role
Kenya’s airports are handling more travellers than at any point since before the pandemic, and the curve is still pointing upward. According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics’ Economic Survey 2025, commercial air passenger traffic in the country rose by 5.1 percent in 2024 to reach approximately 12.83 million passengers. International passengers were the main growth driver, jumping by 9.6 percent to about 7.28 million, while domestic traffic held steady at just over 5.3 million.
This surge has pushed Kenya close to, and in some indicators beyond, its 2019 performance, when it last recorded its highest levels of passenger activity before the global downturn. International Civil Aviation Organization data show Kenya’s air passenger traffic, measured in passenger-kilometres, expanded by more than 48 percent between 2022 and 2023 alone, underscoring how quickly demand has returned and how strongly the country is now positioned as a regional connector.
The state’s own aviation revenues have followed the same trajectory. Government earnings from aviation activities grew by close to 60 percent in the year to June 2023 as airports handled more than 11 million passengers and aircraft movements reached a four-year high. That momentum that continued into 2024, with aircraft movements rising again to more than 360,000 and international operations accounting for a growing share of total flights.
Behind these headline numbers sits a complex network of partnerships, codeshares and cross-border demand, with Uganda now emerging as one of the most important growth engines alongside Egypt, South Africa, Tanzania and Ethiopia. Together, these countries are reshaping the traffic flows into and out of Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and Mombasa’s Moi International Airport.
Uganda’s Entebbe Corridor Becomes a High-Growth Feeder
Uganda’s capital gateway, Entebbe International Airport, has been experiencing a steady climb in international passenger volumes, and a significant share of that traffic is now funnelling through Kenya. Between January and June 2024, Entebbe handled more than 1.06 million international passengers, with arrivals and departures almost evenly split. That makes the Entebbe–Nairobi corridor one of the busiest short-haul international markets in East Africa.
For Kenya Airways and its regional competitors, the Uganda link has become a core component of their East African network strategies. Frequent flights between Entebbe and Nairobi provide onward connections to long-haul services into Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the rest of Africa, allowing Ugandan travellers to tap into Kenya’s extensive partnerships with carriers such as KLM, Air France and several Asian and Middle Eastern airlines.
The corridor’s importance has grown as Uganda’s own outbound tourism, labour mobility and business travel have risen. Ugandan travellers are increasingly using Nairobi as a springboard to destinations that do not yet have non-stop connectivity from Entebbe, including New York, Bangkok and selected European and Southern African cities served by Kenya Airways and its partners. The result is a steadily thickening two-way flow of passengers that boosts seat occupancy and yields on Kenyan routes.
For Kenya’s aviation authorities, Uganda’s emergence as a key feeder market complements other regional flows from Tanzania, Rwanda and South Sudan. It further underpins Nairobi’s status as a de facto hub for the Great Lakes region, while strengthening the case for continued investment in terminal expansions, runway upgrades and airspace management technology to manage rising volumes safely.
Record-Breaking Growth Across Africa Lifts Kenya Airways
Kenya Airways is at the centre of this transformation. After a prolonged period of turbulence, the airline has been reporting robust passenger growth, particularly on African routes. Industry reports based on the carrier’s latest standalone sustainability disclosures show that Kenya Airways transported more than 5.2 million passengers in 2024 across a network of about 46 destinations, with roughly 80 percent of its traffic originating within Africa.
This performance places Kenya Airways among the continent’s leading players. The African Airlines Association notes that in 2024, African carriers collectively carried more than 66 million passengers, with Kenya Airways ranking among the top five by passenger numbers. Alongside giants such as Ethiopian Airlines and EgyptAir, the Kenyan flag carrier has become a critical part of the backbone of intra-African connectivity, providing links that feed not only its own long-haul services but also the global networks of its codeshare partners.
While the airline still faces financial headwinds, including a return to loss-making territory in the first half of 2025 driven partly by capacity constraints, underlying demand remains strong. Kenya Airways management has repeatedly highlighted the resilience of international passenger demand and the strategic importance of restoring grounded aircraft to expand seat capacity on core African routes.
Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Egypt and South Africa all feature prominently in this network recalibration. High-traffic city pairs such as Nairobi–Entebbe, Nairobi–Kilimanjaro, Nairobi–Johannesburg and Nairobi–Addis Ababa are central to the carrier’s efforts to capture growing business, diaspora and tourism flows within Africa, while also feeding its routes to destinations like London, Amsterdam, Dubai and New York.
Codeshares With Egypt, South Africa and Ethiopia Deepen Regional Ties
Codeshare agreements form the backbone of Kenya’s expanding aviation influence. Kenya Airways maintains an extensive portfolio of codeshare partnerships that give passengers on its flights access to dozens of additional destinations while allowing partner carriers to use Nairobi as an access point to East and Central Africa. Among its African codeshare partners are EgyptAir, South African Airways, Air Mauritius, Mozambique’s LAM, Royal Air Maroc and pan-African operator Asky.
The cooperation with EgyptAir has been especially important in linking East Africa with North Africa and the Middle East. Through coordinated schedules and reciprocal codes, travellers in Nairobi, Entebbe and Dar es Salaam can connect via Cairo to a wide spread of European and Middle Eastern cities, while Egyptian travellers gain more seamless access to safari destinations in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. This complementarity strengthens both carriers’ positions in an increasingly competitive intra-African market.
South African Airways, long a major player in Southern African connectivity, has also deepened its use of codeshares across the continent, including with Kenya Airways. While South African Airways continues to rebuild its network, its partnerships allow passengers in South Africa to reach Nairobi and onward to East African destinations with single-ticket, through-checked convenience. This has been reinforced by the broader trend of Southern African carriers, such as TAAG Angola Airlines, entering new codeshare deals that knit together regional hubs from Luanda to Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s largest carrier by passenger numbers, brings another layer of connectivity. Operating one of the continent’s most extensive networks from its hub in Addis Ababa, Ethiopian uses an array of codeshare partnerships to extend its reach, while also accommodating traffic routed via Nairobi. The interplay between Addis Ababa and Nairobi as twin gateways gives travellers in Uganda, Tanzania and elsewhere in the region more choice in schedules, fares and onward connectivity.
Tanzania, Ethiopia and Egypt Anchor a North–South Corridor Through Nairobi
Beyond bilateral codeshares, Kenya is benefiting from the rise of a broader north–south corridor stretching from Cairo and Addis Ababa to Dar es Salaam and Johannesburg. Egypt, Ethiopia, Tanzania and South Africa are all among Africa’s largest aviation markets by passenger numbers, and their carriers act as magnets for traffic from their respective subregions into Kenya’s hub system.
Egypt’s aviation market alone handled more than 40 million passengers in 2024, while South Africa’s main airports collectively processed tens of millions more. Tanzania has seen steady traffic increases into its key leisure gateways, particularly Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar, which connect seamlessly to Nairobi’s long-haul network. Ethiopian Airlines’ dominance in East and Horn of Africa traffic, meanwhile, creates opportunities for triangular and multi-stop itineraries that include Nairobi as a transfer point or secondary hub.
As capacity has returned and expanded on routes connecting Nairobi with Cairo, Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, Johannesburg and Cape Town, Kenya’s position at the mid-point of this corridor has strengthened. Travellers from Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan increasingly use Nairobi to switch between northbound and southbound itineraries, amplifying Kenya’s role as a linchpin between the continent’s key aviation powerhouses.
For Kenya, this convergence is more than simply a matter of seat counts. It reflects a structural shift towards greater integration of African air networks, with Nairobi serving as one of the primary interchanges where intra-African and intercontinental traffic flows intersect. Uganda’s growing participation in this system, both as an origin of feeder passengers and as a destination for tourists from Egypt, South Africa and beyond, magnifies the economic impact on all sides.
Unprecedented Connectivity Growth at Kenya’s Main Gateways
Much of the connectivity growth is being channelled through Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi and Moi International Airport in Mombasa. Jomo Kenyatta remains Kenya’s main international gateway and a core hub for Kenya Airways and several foreign carriers. The airport has recorded a sustained rise in international movements, supported by the introduction and resumption of routes such as Nairobi–Maputo, additional frequencies to European capitals, and new links to Asian and Middle Eastern cities.
Mombasa’s role has expanded as well, particularly in leisure traffic. The Economic Survey 2025 highlights a sharp increase in international passengers at Moi International Airport in 2024, bolstered by strong demand on routes to Dubai, Zanzibar and Addis Ababa. Charter services from Europe and the Middle East have also returned, funnelling tourism flows to Kenya’s coast and, by extension, to inland safari and business destinations reached via domestic flights.
At the regional level, secondary airports and airfields across Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are feeding these hubs through a dense network of short-haul services. Smaller carriers based at Nairobi’s Wilson Airport and other regional airfields provide connections into national parks, coastal strips and cross-border points, complementing the mainline jet traffic. As connectivity multiplies, the seamlessness of transfers between regional and international flights becomes a key competitive differentiator for Kenya versus rival hubs.
The cumulative effect is a patchwork of new and restored connectivity options that give travellers from cities such as Entebbe, Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Lusaka, Harare, Cairo and Addis Ababa more ways to reach Nairobi and continue onward. This unprecedented growth in options is one of the reasons passenger numbers have recovered faster than many analysts initially expected.
Economic, Tourism and Trade Impacts Across East Africa
The aviation boom centred on Kenya is resonating throughout the region’s economies. For Uganda, improved access to Nairobi’s network has facilitated greater trade, with exporters of perishables, manufactured goods and minerals taking advantage of shorter transit times and more reliable schedules. Uganda’s tourism industry also benefits from easier multi-country circuits, with tour operators now routinely packaging Uganda–Kenya–Tanzania safaris that rely on coordinated flights.
Kenya itself is seeing higher inflows of tourists from North Africa, Southern Africa and the Middle East, many of whom connect through partner hubs before arriving in Nairobi or Mombasa. Egyptian and South African travellers, for example, are taking advantage of more frequent and better-timed connections to combine Kenyan coast holidays with city stays in Entebbe, Kilimanjaro or Zanzibar, spreading tourism receipts across multiple destinations and extending average stays.
Business travel has rebounded strongly as well. Nairobi’s positioning as a regional headquarters city for multinational firms means demand for reliable connectivity to business centres such as Johannesburg, Cairo and Addis Ababa has continued to rise. Uganda’s own expanding oil and gas sector, along with its growing services economy, is translating into increased corporate travel that frequently uses Nairobi as a switching point to other African and global hubs.
Collectively, these trends are reinforcing aviation’s role as a key contributor to East African economic output. In Kenya, the sector’s direct and indirect impacts include aviation fuel demand, ground handling, catering, airport retail and hospitality. For Uganda and its neighbours, easier access to global markets through Kenyan hubs supports export competitiveness and helps attract foreign investment, particularly in tourism, logistics and services.
Challenges, Safety Focus and the Next Phase of Growth
Rapid expansion has brought challenges alongside opportunities. Kenya Airways’ financial volatility, aircraft maintenance constraints and currency pressures have all raised questions about the pace at which capacity can sustainably grow. Infrastructure at key airports is also under strain at peak hours, necessitating further investment in terminals, aprons and air traffic management systems to avoid congestion and maintain service quality.
Safety remains a paramount concern across the region, especially as aircraft movements increase and new operators enter the market. Kenyan and Ugandan regulators have been working to tighten oversight and upgrade systems even as traffic surges. Isolated incidents, including a mid-air collision involving a regional carrier near Nairobi in early 2024, have underscored the importance of continued vigilance, modern surveillance technology and rigorous pilot training as skies become busier.
Despite these headwinds, industry forecasts remain upbeat. Global trade bodies project continued growth in passenger traffic across Africa over the coming years, with East Africa expected to outperform many other regions thanks to its fast-growing middle class, expanding tourism offering and ongoing liberalisation of air services. Kenya’s plans to restore and expand its national carrier’s fleet, deepen strategic partnerships and improve airport infrastructure are aligned with these projections.
For Uganda, Egypt, South Africa, Tanzania, Ethiopia and the wider constellation of partner countries now funnelling passengers through Kenyan hubs, the stakes are high. As codeshares evolve into broader strategic alliances and more routes reach record load factors, the Nairobi–Mombasa system is emerging as one of Africa’s most important aviation platforms. How effectively Kenya and its neighbours manage this growth will help determine not only the future of East African skies, but also the trajectory of trade, tourism and investment across the continent.