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The capital of Somali Regional State, Jijiga, 628Km east of Addis Abeba, got a new asphalt runway, as part of the modern airport that is set to accommodate jet airplanes.
Believed to be able to satisfy the increasing air transport demand of the region, the airport is among the three main runway construction projects of the Ethiopian Airports Enterprise (EAE), the other two being in Assosa and Humera.
A pioneer in the aviation history of the country by hosting the first pilots and technicians training centre in 1930, Jijiga town was not fortunate enough to have a modern airport until now.
Efforts to build a modern airport began four decades ago, after the colonial powers of the time, the Italians, left Southern Somalia.
A corner-stone was laid in 1965 to build an airport at a place called Degah Ahyuat [white stone], 13Km south east of Jijiga, but it was later built on another site called “Harer Ber” and opened the same year.
The old airport, which served airline traffic for the last 43 years, could only accommodate aircrafts with a maximum capacity of 52 passengers.
The airport used to provide services for Ethiopian Airlines Fokker 50 flights four times a week on the Addis Abeba-Dire Dawa-Jijiga-Gode routes. The airstrip of the old airport was 1980 metres in length and 30 metres wide, but was unserviceable during the rainy season.
“If it rained, the airplanes would be forced to return to where they had come from,” Shiferaw Alemu, head of Engineering and Regional Airports Bureau at EAE, told Fortune. “Whether it is summer or winter the new runway, on the other hand, will give reliable service.”
Started on May 8, 2005, the construction of the airport by a local company, Akir Construction Plc, was finalized in November 2007 and handed over to the Enterprise in December. Akir surfaced the runway, apron and taxiway parts of the airport with asphalt concrete. The runway is 2,500 metres long, 45 metres wide and has a seventy metre shoulder, while the modern apron is 150 metres in length and 55 metres in width. Connecting the runway to the apron, the taxi-way stretches for 176 metres and is 18 meters wide.
“The runway and taxiway can handle 150,000 pounds (68,039Kg),” Shiferaw said during the inauguration ceremony of the new airport held on June 3, 2008.
There had been plans to fly into Jijiga on a Boeing aircraft, but the 120,000 residents of the city saw instead, Junedin Sado, minister of transport and communications and Alemayehu Tegenu, minister of Mines and Energy (MoME) as well as the board chairman of the EAE, disembark from a chartered Fokker flown from Addis Abeba so as to make it to the inaugural ceremony. Eyob Estifanos, general manager of the enterprise and other officials of EAE accompanied the two ministers. Abdullahi Hassan, president of the Somali Region and cabinet members of the regional council were on hand to welcome the guests.
“The regional government contributed by providing the land and paying compensation to residents relocated from the current airport site” said Abdullahi.
When EAE approved the building of a modern airport at a place that had been chosen four decades ago, there were over 500 farmers on the site. It cost the regional government 11.9 million Br to evacuate the farmers from the area. The delay in the airport’s construction is, thus, attributed to the long process of evacuation. Akir signed an agreement on March 26, 2006 to build the runway, the airport’s first phase project, within 780 days with plans to hand it over in June 2007, but this was delayed until November 2007.
“The design change on the runway and shortage of construction material also contributed to the delay,” Shiferaw said.
After successfully accomplishing the first phase of the project, EAE’s next plan is to build a terminal. The design of the terminal has already been finalized and its construction is expected to begin at the end of the coming rainy season. A big warehouse-like facility, built with corrugated iron roofing that was used as Akir’s camp, is currently being used as a temporary terminal.
“When the terminal is built and other navigational equipment installed, the airport will provide an immense contribution towards helping to tap in to the region’s abundant livestock resources,” Junedin said.
“The airport is close to Hargessa, capital of Somaliland, and other countries. Its opening makes it easier for interested business people to invest in meat processing and dairy products, using the rich livestock resource, and to export the products to these countries.”
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