Berbera Airport

Berbera International Airport (IATA: BBO[1], ICAO: HCMI)( Somali: Madaarka Caalamiga ah ee Berbera) is an airport in Berbera, a city in the northwestern Sahil province in Somaliland. A new terminal and 12 km fence were built in 2015.

Berbera International Airport
Madaarka Caalamiga ah ee Berbera
Exterior view of Berbera's airport
Summary
Airport typePublic / Military
OwnerSomaliland Civil Aviation & Air Transport Ministry
ServesBerbera, Somaliland
Elevation AMSL30 ft / 7 m
Coordinates10°23′21″N 044°56′28″E
Map
BBO
Location of airport in Somaliland
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
05/23 13,582 4,140 Paved Asphalt
(no ILS)

History

The Berbera airport has a 4,140 m (13,582 ft) runway, one of the longest on the continent.[2] The runway was built by the Soviet Union (USSR) in the mid-1970s in order to counter the United States' military presence in the region.[3] It was rented by NASA at a cost of $40 million USD per year, and used as an emergency landing site for the Space Shuttle from 1980 until 1991, when the government of former President of Somalia Siad Barre collapsed.

In 2012, Somaliland's Ministry of Civil Aviation contracted the Tekleberhan Ambaye Construction Plc (TACON) to build a new terminal and perimeter fence at the Berbera airport. The Grade 1 firm had previously constructed various buildings in Ethiopia, including the Oromia region president's office, the Yayu fertilizer factory, Jimma University, Mekelle University and Gambella Region Technical and Vocational Training College. A joint venture with the Afro-Sino Contracting and Investment Company, the project's design was conceived by the International Consultants Technocrats and Marco Construction firms. It cost 83 million Ethiopian birr in total, 3 million birr of which was earmarked for TACON. In March 2015, President of Somaliland Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud officially inaugurated the new airport terminal and fence, with officials from Djibouti, Ethiopia and Yemen in attendance. The terminal was constructed on a 3,200-square metre land plot and has various facilities, including public address and communication equipment, baggage transfer and checkpoints, security checks, a water tanker, 200 kg capacity scales, and an asphalt road leading toward the runway. The airport fence is also 12 kilometres in length.[4]

Airlines and destinations
AirlinesDestinations
African Express Airways Aden (suspended),[5] Bosaso, Cairo, Dubai–International, Galkayo, Mogadishu, Nairobi–Jomo Kenyatta, Sharjah, Wajir

References
  1. "IATA Airport Code Search (BBO: Berbera)". International Air Transport Association. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
  2. Schmitz, Sebastain (2007). "By Ilyushin 18 to Mogadishu". Airways. 14 (7): 12–17. ISSN 1074-4320.
  3. Yazzie, J.H. 1983 USMC field exercise, this was told to me by my Commanding officer. See also Library of Congress Country Study at and https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/cia-rdp83-01074r000300360002-7
  4. "Ethiopia's TACON Completes Somaliland's New Airport Terminal and Fence With 80 Million Br". Addis Fortune. 4 March 2015. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  5. "Yémen : fermeture de l'aéroport d'Aden pour des raisons de sécurité (source aéropotuaire)" (in French). L'Orient Le Jour. 25 March 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
Aerial view of Berbera airport
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