In December 2022, Swissport International AG expanded its African network by adding operations at Mombasa’s Moi International Airport (MBA) in Kenya.
This move brings the total number of airports in Africa where Swissport offers aviation ground services to 31. The company has been supporting airlines in Nairobi, Kenya since 1997, where it also operates a cargo center. The first aircraft served by the local Swissport team at the Mombasa airport was a Flightlink Aviation flight from Zanzibar Island.
Racheal Ndegwa, Managing Director of Swissport International in Kenya, said, “We are thrilled to see Swissport expand from Nairobi to Mombasa’s Moi International Airport. Our teams are well trained and can build on extensive experience from the Nairobi operation. Mombasa was a strategic and natural next step.”
Dirk Goovaerts, Managing Director for Continental Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Global Cargo Chair, added, “Africa is a very important region for Swissport. We are intensifying our efforts to extend the network for our airline customers, both in countries where we already have a presence and at new airports. Combining our global expertise with the knowledge and experience of our local teams, we are able to offer best-in-class and reliable aviation ground services for our airline customers in our growing network of airports around the world.”
Swissport Kenya, which celebrated its 25-year anniversary in 2021, provides passenger services, ramp handling and cargo handling, including cold-chain and specialist handling.
The company operates a state-of-the-art warehouse, which incorporates a Swissport Pharma Center, which is vital for the recently launched “freshly cut flowers corridor”. A managed cool-chain solution to ensure the delivery of flowers from Kenyan farms to end customers across the world in a temperature-controlled environment along the entire supply chain.
In November 2022, Swissport Kenya was named Best in Cargo Warehousing and Best in Ground Handling at the 2022 Aviation Business Excellence Awards (ABEA) in Nairobi.
In 2022, Swissport International AG provided best-in-class airport ground services for some 186 million airline passengers (pre-COVID 2019: 265 million) and handled roughly 4.8 million tons of air freight (2019: 4.6 million) at 117 air cargo centers worldwide. Several of its warehouses have been certified for pharmaceutical logistics by IATA’s CEIV Pharma and by the British MHRA. The world’s leader in airport ground services and air cargo handling, with currently around 50,000 employees, was active at 292 airports in 45 countries on six continents.
