Çelebi Aviation has agreed a new ground handling contract with Turkish Airlines at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO) in Nairobi, extending the handler’s footprint in the East African market.
Under the agreement, Çelebi Aviation will provide ground handling services for Turkish Airlines’ Istanbul to Nairobi route. The service covers seven weekly flights, equivalent to approximately 365 flights a year, with the airline expected to carry between 75,000 and 80,000 passengers annually on the route.
The contract adds Turkish Airlines to Çelebi Aviation’s existing client roster at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, which already includes British Airways, Emirates SkyCargo, Network Airlines and Astral Aviation.
The airport is one of East Africa’s principal aviation hubs, serving as a gateway for both passenger and cargo traffic across the region.
Çelebi Aviation Kenya says the deal is part of a broader strategy to expand its presence across the African continent, where ground handling demand has grown alongside rising international carrier frequencies into regional hubs.
For Turkish Airlines, the arrangement secures dedicated ground handling capacity on a route connecting its Istanbul hub to one of sub-Saharan Africa’s busiest airports, supporting network reliability on a service that operates close to daily throughout the year.
No financial terms of the ground handling agreement were disclosed. The companies did not specify a start date for operations under the new contract.
The deal follows a pattern of expansion by global ground handling providers into African hub airports, as carriers including Turkish Airlines continue to grow frequencies on routes linking Europe, the Middle East and East Africa.
Ground handling capacity and reliability at hub airports such as Jomo Kenyatta International Airport remain a material operational consideration for airlines managing turnaround times and network punctuality across long, multi-sector routings.
