Hargeisa International Airport

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Egal International Airport - Hargeisa
Hargeisa airport.jpg
IATA: HGAICAO: HCMH
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner Somaliland Civil Aviation & Air Transport Ministry
Serves Hargeisa, Somalia
Elevation AMSL 4,423 ft / 1,348 m
Coordinates Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Map
HGA is located in Somalia
HGA
HGA
Location of airport in Somalia
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
06/24 12,139 3,700 [1] Paved Asphalt
(no ILS)

Hargeisa Egal International Airport (IATA: HGAICAO: HCMH, (Somali: Madaarka Cigaal ee Calaamiga Arabic: مطار هرجيسا إيغال الدولية‎‎) is an international airport in Hargeisa, the capital of the autonomous Somaliland region in northwestern Somalia.[2][3] Named after the region's first president, the airport underwent major renovations in 2012–2013.[4] In 2002 the airport handled 56,000 passengers & 2,300 tons of cargo on a total of 1,750 landings.[5]

History

The airport was opening in 1954 by the British military, an expansion program was launch shortly afterwards and by 1958 a taxiway, parking area and terminal building has been built.[6] The airport was then modernized in the 1980s by the Siad Barre administration so as to accommodate larger aircraft and offer more flight destinations.[7]

File:Ethiopian Fokker50 ET-AKS.JPG
An Ethiopian Airlines Fokker 50 at Egal International Airport in Hargeisa, the capital of the northwestern Somaliland region of Somalia.

During the events leading up to the Somali Civil War in the early 1990s, the airport's infrastructure was significantly damaged. However, the facility was gradually rehabilitated over the next several years.

The airport was later renamed to Egal International Airport after the veteran politician Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal. Egal served as Somalia's Prime Minister in the early 1960s during the country's post-independence civilian administration, before later becoming the Somaliland region's second President.

In 2012, the airport's routes were temporarily suspended as its runway underwent major renovations, funded by the Somaliland authorities, Kuwait Fund and USAID. The facility was later reopened on 17 August 2013, with enlarged arrival and departure terminals, as well as five new wind turbines. An installed wind data monitoring station will also assist in powering the airport.[4]

Facilities

In June 2014, the Somaliland regional government and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) inaugurated a new wind energy project at the airport. The new wind power facility is under the authority of the Somaliland Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, which will manage it through a public-private partnership and oversee its daily operations. The initiative is part of the larger Partnership for Economic Growth, a bilateral program that has invested over $14 million in the Somaliland region's energy, livestock and agriculture sectors as well as in private sector development. The partnership aims in particular to establish local renewable energy technologies, with the new wind energy facility expected to offer a more cost effective alternative to diesel fuel. It is also slated to provide power to both the Hargeisa airport and the surrounding communities.[8]

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines offer scheduled passenger service:

Airlines Destinations
African Express Airways Berbera, Cairo, Dubai-International, Mogadishu, Nairobi-Jomo Kenyatta, Sharjah
Daallo Airlines Djibouti, Dubai-International, Jeddah, Mogadishu-Adde
Ethiopian Airlines Addis Ababa
Felix Airways Aden, Djibouti, Dubai-International, Jeddah, Mogadishu-Adde, Riyan-Mukalla, Sanaa, Sharjah, Taiz (All suspended)

[9]

flydubai Dubai-International[10]
Jubba Airways Bosaso, Djibouti, Dubai-International, Galkayo, Jeddah, Mogadishu, Nairobi-Jomo Kenyatta

Accidents and incidents

Date Location Aircraft Tail number Aircraft damage Fatalities Description Refs
28 June 1989 Balad Fokker F-27 6O-SAZ W/O 30/30 A Somali Airlines Fokker F-27 bound for Hargeisa crashed approximately 10 minutes after taking off from Mogadishu International Airport. All 24 passengers and 6 crew died. [11]

See also

References

External links

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