Nairobi Airport

❎ Not Verified | One of the worlds worst airports. Insufficient seating. The departure lounges are like a cattle farm with no rules and regulations. Passengers standing in lounges with no room. Absolutely a shame for a country once upin a time that had a great tourism industry.

✅ Verified Review | A really terrible airport. There are worst airports in terms of infrastructure and ambience such as Mogadishu or Erbil, but the rudeness of the staff take this to an all time low. Treated with indifference and when you ask a reasonable question dismissed out of hand. Please and Thank you are terms that should be used when making requests of travellers. Full of unimaginative "computer says no" types. I will fly Turkish Airlines next time so I don’t have to travel through Nairobi.

✅ Verified Review | Going back in time. As Kenya Airways flies the new generation Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, having a transit stop for several hours breaks the mood. Old fashioned terminal, very high price-settings for a beer, yes one waiter asked me ZAR 150 (one hundred fifty Rand) for a beer on draught. Which I refused to pay of course. Lots of improvement can be done here, however lots of staff very welcoming and that compensates.

✅ Verified Review | Nairobi is not an airport where you would want a long transit time. Not a lot to do with a very small duty free shopping area and a few coffee shops. Relatively clean, but seating limited. Spent 5 hours here in transit between Tanzania and Bangkok. Free wifi at Java Coffee House near gate 14, but it is usually very busy there. I paid 500 shillings (about US$5) for unlimited airport wifi which was slow, but worked fine.

Whilst the new terminal at Nairobi Airport is excellent for arrivals and departures on domestic carriers, the "old" international terminal is in desperate need of upgrade. We flew BA in and out. Inbound arrivals processing was a chaotic experience, with passengers herded into a wide and deep queue with no apparent order. We were fortunate to determine one could queue to any counter regardless of passport and managed to get out in under an hour. Departure was also poorly managed. Apparently, a private contractor, Swissport, manages security and some operations. Departing passengers are required to display passports / boarding passes and X-ray carry on luggage no less than 5 times in completely uncoordinated fashion - shoes off / all electronics out immediately followed by another checkpoint with a different set of requirements. Swissport staff are surly and rigid, making no exceptions for medical needs. Also, no washrooms past the security gauntlet.

Transited twice during November 2016. Both arrivals and departures were swift, especially the visa on arrival process. However the Kenya Airways domestic departures area is still very scruffy. The Sky Team international departures area is new, bright and well populated with shops and cafes. However, Gates 4 to 14 [mostly used by other airlines] is still gloomy with low ceilings and basically untouched by the upgrade. I was with KQ, so had a good experience. Duty-free prices appeared to be high.

Nairobi used to be a grim old airport. The sort of place that made one avoid Kenya and I did for many years. Well, I had to go back for work and what a change. The fire was obviously the best thing that could have happened to it. I arrived in on a flight from Juba. I walked quickly from the aircraft to get a ahead of everyone and quickly arrived at immigration which was deserted. That would have been 5 minutes after getting off the plane. The officer processed my e-visa quickly and courteously. So I was in the baggage reclaim area a short time later. And the bags were there already. So from getting off the place to getting out of the airport was not much more than 10 minutes. Something of a record for an international flight anywhere on the planet. If only Heathrow could do that! I passed through a couple more times on the way down to Mombasa and back home to the UK. There were no significant delays or problems with the usual procedures. The new airport is pretty reasonable. There are still bit of the old airport which you can walk round to remind yourself how it once was. I used the Turkish business lounge which was not that great. The business lounges at Nairobi always were a bit rough and the Turkish lounge is below their usual standard.

The old part of Nairobi airport remains a bit tatty but there is evidence of a clean-up. There is still a smoking area near Gate 6. The new part is much better with better facilities e.g. a coffee shop, various duty free shops etc. If you enter via the new part and want to go to the smoking area near Gate 6 there is easy access but for some strange reason you have to go through a security check in order to return to the "new" gates.

A much improved airport following a massive re-build after the fire. The international section is now approaching international standards, with much more space, more boarding gates and a fair number of shops and cafes. The international arrival was via an airbridge but a bus was required for the regional departure.

Arrival: The new International Airport is definitely better than the old. Immigration lines were rather odd and the area appeared to be cramped. They do have the new electronics and we had the print out for the e-visa. By the way, this was really a breeze to apply for. Approval took 2 hours. The Baggage pickup was a mess with so many bags not being collected. The process took a long time. The flight arrived at 9.30pm so by the time we were done was 11.00pm. When we left the door leading outside, there was one security guard with so many people mingling around there, not a safe area I thought. Oddly enough there are no ATM's/Shops etc outside this exit unlike the old airport terminal. We had to walk a way to a very small shop to get our SIM cards. Perhaps this will have changed the next time I go there. The layout on the outside for carts/pickup is rather mixed up. Not easy to navigate. Departure: Note: There is now an additional security check before you even get to the airport. They started this in July 2016. Be aware of your times for airline departure. You exit your car/bus etc and only the driver goes though the checkpoint. Passengers have to go through a scan machine which was a huge joke really. The security guard did not care. We arrived at 5.30am for an 8.00am departure. There were no luggage carts outside once we have the taxi drop off. Oddly enough, you had to ask the security guard for a couple of carts which were IN the terminal. He did not allow our taxi driver to pick them up but allowed us. One very glaring issue I am sure was the second security scan of all bags. There is a bottleneck at the exit of the security check. Since we were early it was not an issue. Otherwise the airport was much better than expected for departures as well. If you are Sky Priority (KLM, Air France, Delta etc), it is great as they have a dedicated area for you. KQ is trying to automate the check in process.