Transportation in Malawi is poorly developed. The country of almost 14 million has 39 airports, 6 with paved runways and 33 with unpaved runways. It has of railways, all narrow-gauge and about 45 percent of its roads are paved. Though it is

landlocked A landlocked country is a country that does not have territory connected to an ocean or whose coastlines lie on endorheic basins. There are currently 44 landlocked countries and 4 landlocked de facto states. Kazakhstan is the world's largest ...

, Malawi also has of waterways on Lake Malawi and along the Shire River.

Highways

Recent assessments indicate that there were of roads in the country; of these, (45 percent) were paved. The remaining were not paved.

Ports, harbours and waterways

Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi) and Shire River (144 kilometres) provide the major waterways. There is a railhead at the port of

Chipoka Chipoka is a town located in the Central Region district of Salima, in Malawi. It is one of the main ports on Lake Malawi and is the closest port to the capital city of Lilongwe. Chipoka is located on the western shore of Kasangha Bay across fr ...

, Salima district in central Malawi. Smaller ports exist at

Monkey Bay Main north-south street of the town. Monkey Bay or Lusumbwe is a town in Mangochi which is in the Mangochi District in the Southern Region of Malawi. The town is on the shore of Lake Malawi and is one of the main ports on Lake Malawi. The popul ...

, Nkhata Bay, Nkhotakota and Chilumba. The MV Ilala connects Likoma Island with the mainland, as well as the Malawian and Mozambican sides of the lake. In 2010, a port in

Nsanje Nsanje (formerly Port Herald) is the main city in Nsanje District within the Southern Region of Malawi. The intense urbanization in the fertile Shire River valley has formed an extensive urbanized zone that runs from the city of Bangula, furth ...

was opened to connect the country through the Shire and Zambezi rivers with the Indian Ocean. As of 2015, the port is not operational due to unresolved contracts with Mozambique.

Air transport

Malawian Airlines Limited is the national airline of Malawi which operates regional passenger service. Based in

Lilongwe Lilongwe (, , ) is the capital and most populated city of the African country of Malawi. It has a population of 989,318 as of the 2018 Census, up from a population of 674,448 in 2008. In 2020 that figure was 1,122,000. The city is located in th ...

, it is 51% owned by the Malawi government. 49% are controlled by Ethiopian Airlines The airline's main base of operations is Lilongwe International Airport, with a secondary hub at

Chileka International Airport Chileka International Airport is an international airport in Malawi. It is located approximately , by road, northwest of Blantyre, the second largest city in the Republic of Malawi and the country's commercial and financial capital. Chileka ...

Airports

In 2001 there was a total of 44 airports in the country. As of 2015, two airports have scheduled passenger services.

Paved runways

''total:'' 6
''over 3,047 m:'' 1
''1,524 to 2,437 m:'' 1
''914 to 1,523 m:'' 4 (2002)

Unpaved runways

''total:'' 37
''1,524 to 2,437 m:'' 1
''914 to 1,523 m:'' 14
''under 914 m:'' 22 (2002)

Rail transport

Malawi Railways is the national rail network in Malawi, run by a government corporation until privatisation in 1999. As of 1 December 1999 the Central East African Railways, a consortium led by Railroad Development Corporation, won the right to operate the network. This was the first rail privatisation in Africa which did not involve a parastatal operator. The rail network totalled 797 kilometres in 2001. It is a narrow gauge line with a track.

Railway links with adjacent countries

The , gauge line extends from the Zambian border at

Mchinji Mchinji is a town and the capital of the Mchinji District in the Central Region of Malawi. Mchinji Boma, located from the Zambian border and from the national capital, Lilongwe, is the major hub of government and general business. It has a m ...

in the west via

to Blantyre and Makhanga in the south. At

Nkaya Junction Nkaya, also known as Nacaia, is a town in Malawi, located in the district of Balaka and in the Southern Region of the country. Its economy is predominantly agricultural, but it has an important logistics sector, as it serves as the junction point ...

it links with the Nacala Corridor line going east via Nayuchi to Mozambique's deepwater port at Nacala on the Indian Ocean. The link south from Makhanga to Mozambique's Beira corridor has been closed since the

Mozambique Civil War The Mozambican Civil War ( pt, Guerra Civil Moçambicana) was a civil war fought in Mozambique from 1977 to 1992. Like many regional African conflicts during the late twentieth century, the Mozambican Civil War possessed local dynamics but was a ...

, with plans for reconstruction not yet realised. There is no direct link with neighbouring Tanzania as there is a break of gauge, / . An extension from

Chipata The city of Chipata is the administrative centre of the Eastern Province of Zambia and Chipata District. It was declared the 5th city of the country, after Lusaka, Ndola, Kitwe and Livingstone, by President Edgar Lungu on 24 February 2017. The c ...

in Zambia opened in 2010, and there is a proposal to eventually link up from there with the TAZARA railway at Mpika. Direct linkage is available with Mozambique, however, which has the same gauge track. Linkage is called the Nacala Corridor line via Nayuchi to the port of Nacala, and

to the Dona Ana Bridge and Beira. The latter link has not been operational since the war in Mozambique and is in need of reconstruction.

Rail developments in 2006

In 2006, a Brazilian company (

VALE A vale is a type of valley. Vale may also refer to: Places Georgia * Vale, Georgia, a town in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region Norway * Våle, a historic municipality Portugal * Vale (Santa Maria da Feira), a former civil parish in the municipali ...

) announced plans to build a rail branch line to the Moatize coal mine in western Mozambique from the Nacala Corridor line to export coal via the port of Nacala; the link would cross Malawi. The national Railroad Development Corporation map shows a proposed extension across the border to

in Zambia.

Central East African Railways Central East African Railways is a consortium formed in 1999, led by the Railroad Development Corporation, which won the right to operate the Malawi Railways network. The company was sold in September 2008 to INSITEC, an investment group based in ...

, previously a subsidiary of the Railroad Development Corporation, operates the privatised

Malawi Railways Malawi Railways was a government corporation that ran the national rail network of Malawi, Africa, until privatisation in 1999. With effect from 1 December 1999, the Central East African Railways consortium led by Railroad Development Corporati ...

network. Also in 2006, the president of Malawi,

Bingu wa Mutharika Bingu wa Mutharika (; born Brightson Webster Ryson Thom; 24 February 1934 – 5 April 2012) was a Malawian politician and economist who was President of Malawi from May 2004 until his death in April 2012. He was also President of the Democ ...

asked his Mozambiquan counterpart, Armando Guebuza, to consider the provision of a new 250 kilometre rail connection from

- the then-current southern extent of

- to the Indian Ocean port of Chinde, near the mouth of the Zambesi.

Communications

As of 2007, there were 175,200

land line A landline (land line, land-line, main line, home phone, fixed-line, and wireline) is a telephone connection that uses metal wires or optical fiber telephone line for transmission, as distinguished from a mobile cellular network, which uses ...

telephones in Malawi, and 1.051 million

cell phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

s, which is approximately 8 cell phones per 100 people. The telephone system overall is described as rudimentary. In the past, Malawi's telecommunications system has been named as some of the poorest in Africa, but conditions are improving, with 130,000 land line telephones being connected between 2000 and 2007. Telephones are much more accessible in urban areas, with less than a quarter of land lines being in rural areas. There were 139,500 Internet users as of 2007, and 3 Internet service providers as of 2002. As of 2001 there were 14 radio stations and 1 TV station.