Wilson Airport, located to the South of Nairobi City, is an important establishment as it offers a space for small aircraft to land. It has eased the traffic at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and made it easy for Kenyans to travel domestically via air.
Over the years, Wilson Airport has grown and is currently one of the busiest airports in East and Central Africa in terms of aircraft movement.
According to the Kenya Airports Authority, domestic flights constitute 90% of the total flights from the airport, with international flights accounting for 10%.
The airport has planes flying to different destinations such as Maasai Mara, Mombasa, Amboseli, Lamu, Kilimanjaro Diani, Lokichogio and Nanyuki.
Where did Wilson Airport get its name from
Wilson Airport was named after Ms Florence Kerr Wilson, the lady who founded it. Initially, the airport was named Nairobi Aerodrome, but it was renamed Wilson Airport in honour of its founder.
Who is Florence Wilson?
Florence Wilson was among the Europeans who came to Kenya in the early 1990s. A native of England, she came to Kenya with her late husband, Major W.H. Wilson and settled in the Timau area, where they practised farming.
Following the death of her husband, Florence inherited a fortune, which she later used to acquire an open-cockpit aeroplane, which marked the beginning of her journey to establishing the Airport.
Having an aeroplane, Mrs Wilson needed a space where it could land. Therefore, in the early 1920s, she worked with her associates to establish an airfield near the current Junction Mall.
Mrs Wilson dubbed her plane Wilson Airways, and it was flown by Captain Tom Black, who had been a close associate following her husband's death.
Wilson Airways majorly provided mail delivery services across the East African region, considering that most areas were yet to be civilised.
After several years of operation (1929), the airfield moved from the Junction Mall area to the current Wilson airport location. The relocation also gave the airfield the new name Nairobi West Aerodrome.
As time passed, Mrs Wilson grew her fleet and acquired more clients, making her a household name in the region's aviation industry. The success of her air travel business saw her introduce new services such as an aviation training school and air ambulance.
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As the business was moving toward its peak, she suffered a major setback in 1939, after World War II, when the government took over all her aircraft, the officers managing them and turned the facility into a royal air force base.
However, in 1962, the government, through then Minister of Commerce and Communications, the late Masinde Muliro, decided to honour Mrs Wilson's efforts by renaming the airport after her.
That is how Wilson Airport got its name. Mrs Wilson passed on in 1968.
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