Wilson Airport Nairobi

Wilson Airport (IATA: WIL, ICAO: HKNW) is located 5km south of Nairobi, Kenya, next to Langata, South C and Kibera. The airport has been in operation since 1933. The airport serves both domestic and international traffic. It is used mostly by light aircraft. Industries that use it’s services extensively are tourism, health care and agriculture.

The airport has an average traffic of around 120,000 landings and take offs annually. Airkenya and other small airlines use Wilson Airport for scheduled domestic passenger services, instead of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, the main airport in Nairobi. Missionary aviation operators AMREF, MAF and AIM AIR use Wilson Airport as their African base. The airport is used also for flight training. The airport is controlled by the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA).

As a result of more quicker check-in times and fewer flight delays, Wilson Airport is commonly used by business people to fly into domestic cities like Kisumu and Mombasa for urgent meetings as opposed to going through Kenya’s main airport hub, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

The airport was established in 1933 as Nairobi Aerodrome, and was used for Air mail by Imperial Airways. The airport was later renamed Wilson Airport in 1962. It was named after Ms Florence Kerr Wilson, a pioneer of aviation in Kenya.

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