Did you know that there still exists an international airport code for Naivasha ICAO: HKNV

Meria

Elder Lister
Staff member
When Lake Naivasha was an airport_
Photo shows last BOAC short solent plane comanded by by Captain Deadman departing for Southampton in September, 1950.
Lake Naivasha was Kenya’s first international airport when planes from mostly European destinations would land at the lake, pick and drop passengers. The flying boats — as the passenger planes were generally known-— ended when advance in aviation technology allowed large planes to land on dry earth and hence the boats could not compete with the new Boeing 707s— at least from 1958.
Previously, those who could not afford the “Flyboat” services — as they were known— could either take the ship from Mombasa and travel by train.
The year 1958 was the turning point for Naivasha. It was when Boeing unveiled their 707 and it was this time that Mau Mau prisoners finished the construction of Embakasi Airport, the predecessor to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
The opening of Embakasi (it is today used by the military) saw Lake Naivasha’s place diminish together with the facilities that had been built to cash in on the flying boat arrivals.
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