Walvis Bay International Airport is an airport serving

Walvis Bay Walvis Bay ( en, lit. Whale Bay; af, Walvisbaai; ger, Walfischbucht or Walfischbai) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The c ...

,Airport information for FYWB
from

DAFIF DAFIF () or the ''Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File'' is a comprehensive database of up-to-date aeronautical data, including information on airports, airways, airspaces, navigation data, and other facts relevant to flying in the entire ...

(effective October 2006) a town in the

Erongo Region Erongo is one of the 14 regions of Namibia. The capital is Swakopmund. It is named after Mount Erongo, a well-known landmark in Namibia and in this area. Erongo contains the municipalities of Walvis Bay, Swakopmund, Henties Bay and Omaruru, as ...

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

. The airport is about east of the town. Walvis Bay International Airport handled more than 98,178 passengers, and logged over 20 000 aircraft movements in 2015.

History

Established as AFB Rooikop, a

South African Air Force "Through hardships to the stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , equipment ...

station (and later as a base) that closed in 1994. It was home to several SAAF squadrons: *

16 Squadron SAAF 16 Squadron SAAF is an attack helicopter squadron of the South African Air Force (SAAF). It was originally formed in World War II as a maritime patrol squadron, however, over the course of the war it was disbanded and reformed a number of times, ...

: 1939–1940 * 27 Squadron SAAF: 1940s In April 2018, Westair Aviation flies scheduled services to six new destinations in Namibia and South Africa. Due to flight performance and headwinds,

Airlink Airlink is an airline based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Its main business is to provide services between smaller, under-served towns and larger hub airports. It has since expanded to offer flights on larger, mainline routes. The airline has ...

in March 2019 has decided to re-direct its technical fuel-stop in Windhoek to Walvis Bay International Airport, a move which would accommodate more passengers on the final leg to

Saint Helena Airport Saint Helena Airport is an international airport on Saint Helena, a remote island in the south Atlantic Ocean, in the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha. The construction of the runway was finishe ...

. The airline has resumed its Johannesburg-service to the island in late March 2022, again landing in Walvis Bay briefly for re-fueling purposes.

Facilities

The airport resides at an elevation of above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...

. It has one

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

designated 09/27 with an

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

surface measuring . The facility complies with International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards. Also included with the rehabilition of the airport was the construction of a polymer perimeter fence which protects the facility from coastal weather conditions. This addition was the first of its kind for the country.

Upgrades

Since 2007, the airport has received upgrades to its air traffic control equipment,

instrument landing system In aviation, the instrument landing system (ILS) is a precision radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to aircraft to allow them to approach a runway at night or in bad weather. In its original form, it allows an aircraft to ...

s, and runway lighting, as well as a runway extension at both ends. The Walvis Bay Airport hub was set to become the country's second international airport during 2016. The airport provides air freight services, bonded warehouses, cold storage warehouse, space storage depots, freight handling facilities and any service-related industries normally associated with airports. The new airport features a Category 3C runway, and despite shortening the runway, it is still able to accommodate larger equipment such as the

Boeing 737-200 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton Factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the Boeing 707, 7 ...

. The newly installed avionics (lighting) and landing system allows aircraft movements during poor weather conditions. This feature has placed Walvis Bay Airport at the forefront of airport technology in Southern Africa, especially where coastal, overcast conditions prevail. Namibia Airports Company (NAC) upgraded the facility, which has the capacity to handle 200 passengers an hour and one million passengers a year. The new terminal, which has been inaugurated in July 2016, meets international standards in terms of operational safety/security and functional efficiency, as well as cargo processing.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled services at the airport:

References

External links