Region
Berbera International Airport (BBO)
Berbera International Airport (IATA BBO, ICAO HCMI) on Somaliland's Gulf of Aden coast has one of the longest runways in Africa, about 4,140 metres. The Soviet Union built it in the mid-1970s, NASA later rented it as an emergency landing site for the Space Shuttle, and after a UAE-funded rebuild it reopened to international flights on 20 November 2021.
At a glance
- Codes: IATA BBO, ICAO HCMI (OurAirports, HCMI).
- Runway: one asphalt runway, 05/23. OurAirports lists it at 13,582 feet (about 4,140 metres); the field is about 30 feet above sea level (OurAirports). Wikipedia calls it one of the longest runways on the continent (Wikipedia, Berbera Airport).
- Where: beside the port city of Berbera in Somaliland. The town's seaport is on Somalia's seaports.
- Website: berbera-airport.com.
A Cold War runway
The Soviet Union built the runway in the mid-1970s, when Somalia was its ally, as part of a wider military presence at Berbera (Wikipedia). After Somalia broke with Moscow in 1977 and turned to the United States, the US space agency NASA rented the airport, reportedly for $40 million a year, as an emergency landing site for the Space Shuttle, from 1980 until the Somali government fell in 1991 (Wikipedia).
The 2015 terminal
In 2012 Somaliland's Ministry of Civil Aviation hired the Ethiopian builder Tekleberhan Ambaye Construction (TACON), in a joint venture with Afro-Tsion Contracting and Investment, to build a new terminal and a perimeter fence. The project cost 83 million Ethiopian birr (Wikipedia). President Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud (Silanyo) opened the terminal in March 2015, with officials from Djibouti, Ethiopia and Yemen present (Wikipedia). The terminal stands on a 3,200 square metre plot, and the fence runs for 12 km (same source).
The UAE rebuild and 2021 reopening
In 2019, after a six-day visit to the United Arab Emirates by Somaliland's president Muse Bihi Abdi, the UAE announced it would restore the airport. The Dubai-based Transport Infrastructure Services Limited (TISL) carried out the work, and the airport reopened to international passengers on 20 November 2021 (Hawilti, November 2021; Wikipedia). The rebuild came alongside DP World's expansion of Berbera port and the Berbera corridor road to Ethiopia; see Somalia's seaports.
Airlines
As of November 2021 Ethiopian Airlines had scheduled flights to Berbera. African Express Airways and Daallo Airlines earlier flew domestic and some regional routes from it (Wikipedia). In 2024 Somaliland set up a state-funded carrier, Somaliland Airlines, starting with light aircraft to train pilots (same source). For other carriers see Airlines in Somalia.
Related
Sources
- OurAirports, HCMI · ourairports.com
- Wikipedia, Berbera Airport · en.wikipedia.org
- berbera-airport.com · berbera-airport.com
- Hawilti, November 2021 · hawilti.com
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