Lungi International Airport
| Lungi International Airport | |||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
| Serves | Freetown and the entire Sierra Leone | ||||||||||
| Location | Lungi, Sierra Leone | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 84 ft / 26 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 08°36′59.20″N 13°11′43.76″W / 8.6164444°N 13.1954889°W | ||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||
  FNA Location within Sierra Leone | |||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||
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| Statistics (2009) | |||||||||||
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Freetown International Airport (IATA: FNA, ICAO: GFLL) (officially), locally known as Lungi International Airport, is an international airport located in the coastal town of Lungi, Sierra Leone. It is the only international airport in Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone River separates Lungi International Airport from Freetown, the nation's capital city.
The airport is operated by the Sierra Leone Airports Authority. Prior to its use as a civilian airport, it was a British Royal Air Force base. In 2012 its management was contracted out to the British security and military company Westminster Aviation Security Services Ltd.
Facilities
The terminal building of the airport is composed of three distinct zones: a General Waiting Hall, a Departures Wing, and an Arrivals Wing. The General Waiting Hall provides ticketing desks for local transportation (coach, ferry, helicopter, hovercraft, and taxi), postal services, a travel agency office, and a restaurant. The Departures Wing contains duty-free shops, restaurants and lounges for business class passengers and VIPs. The Arrivals wing has a customs hall with a money exchange offices, a lost and found baggage office, and an information office. The airport grounds also contain two banks, a police center, various restaurants, two car parks, and a mosque.
The government of Sierra Leone undertook a general upgrade of the terminal in 2010, in order to meet the basic standards of current international airports. The departure hall was commissioned in February 2013. The arrival hall was commissioned in May 2014.
From September 2014, almost all regional and intercontinental flights to Freetown were suspended as a result of the 2014 West Africa Ebola virus outbreak. During this crisis, Brussels Airlines was the only carrier to maintain its regular operations to the airport; catering almost exclusively to NGO health workers. The first airline to resume commercial flights after suspending them was Air Cote d'Ivoire in October 2014[1] while Air France announced to resume services by June 2015.[2] British Airways chose not to resume flights to Sierra Leone. A national airline Fly Salone operated briefly at the start of 2016. This was the first national airline to operate for more than 10 years after Sierra National Airlines stopped flying. After last having served Freetown in December 1996, KLM restarted flights in March 2017.[3] ASKY Airlines recommenced flights in November 2017.[4]
Airlines and destinations
Access
Because the Lungi International Airport is across an estuary from the capital Freetown, passengers have the options of traveling from Lungi International Airport to Freetown through government ferry, private passenger water taxi speed boats and bus transportation. The water taxis are large boats, often with air conditioning and wifi. Most people who are traveling outside Freetown, and to other parts of Sierra Leone, use the highway through public or private transportation. The ferry is the cheapest, and the most common way of traveling from Lungi to Freetown for most Sierra Leoneans. The ferry takes about an hour journey on sea from Lungi to Freetown. The private water taxis take 30-40 minutes to Aberdeen, Murray Town or Government wharf.
Public and private transportation buses run from Lungi to Freetown, and to other parts of Sierra Leone. The highway road journey from Lungi to Freetown is generally three hours drive, but can be considerably more because of traffic in Freetown.
Accidents and incidents
- On August 11, 2004 at around 2:30 p.m. a Boeing 737-200 operated by Air Guinee Express crashed while failing to take off at Lungi Airport. There were no fatalities among the 127 passengers and crew members.[13]
- On June 3, 2007, a helicopter flight from Freetown exploded and crashed on landing at Lungi airport, killing all 22 people on board. The helicopter, a Russian Mi-8, was operated by Paramount Airlines, which shuttled passengers between Sierra Leone's coastal capital Freetown and Lungi airport.[14]
References
- ↑ Mieu, Baudelaire (17 October 2014). "Ivory Coast Airline to Resume Flights to Ebola-Affected Nations". Bloomberg.
- ↑ "Air France to resume Sierra Leone services". Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ↑ 2018, UBM (UK) Ltd. "KLM Resumes Freetown / Monrovia service from March 2017". Routesonline. Retrieved 2018-08-24.
- ↑ "ASKY AIRLINES". www.flyasky.com. Retrieved 2018-08-24.
- ↑ https://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/278671/africa-world-airlines-adds-freetown-from-late-may-2018/%7Ctitle=Africa World Airlines adds Freetown
- ↑ "Africa World Airlines adds Monrovia – Freetown".
- ↑ http://apanews.net/index.php/en/news/air-cote-divore-suspends-flights-to-freetown
- ↑ "Fly Mid Africa Airline starts operations May 15, 2017". thepoint.gm. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
- ↑ https://www.thesierraleonetelegraph.com/klm-will-stop-flying-to-freetown/
- ↑ http://cocorioko.net/press-release-mauritanian-airline-commences-flight-from-dakar-to-freetown/
- ↑ franknews (21 December 2016). "Med-View Airline begins flight services to Monrovia, Freetown". Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ↑ http://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/275619/turkish-airlines-adds-freetown-service-from-feb-2018/
- ↑ Concord Times, Freetown, August 17, 2004, "Crash Victim Tells Kabbah I Am Totally Disappointed in Your Government"
- ↑ "Helicopter crashes in Sierra Leone, 20 killed". Reuters. 3 June 2007.
External links
- A-Z World Airports
- Airport information for GFLL at World Aero Data. Data current as of October 2006.