Arba Minch Airport

Arba Minch Airport[1][2] (IATA: AMH, ICAO: HAAM) is an airport serving Arba Minch, a city in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region (SNNPR) in Ethiopia. The name of the city and airport may also be transliterated as Arba Mintch.[3] The airport is located 5 km (3 miles) northeast of the city centre,[1] near Lake Abaya.

Arba Minch Airport
Summary
Airport typePublic / Military
OperatorEthiopian Airports Enterprise
ServesArba Minch, Ethiopia
Elevation AMSL1,187 m / 3,894 ft
Coordinates06°02′23″N 037°35′25″E
Map
HAAM
Location of airport in Ethiopia (SNNPR in red)
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
03/21 2,800 9,186 Asphalt concrete
Sources:[1][2][3]

Facilities

The airport sits at an elevation of 1,187 metres (3,894 ft) above mean sea level. It has one runway designated 03/21 with an asphalt concrete surface measuring 2,800 by 45 metres (9,186 ft × 148 ft).[1]

Airlines and destinations
AirlinesDestinations
Ethiopian Airlines[4] Addis Ababa, Goba

Military use

In October 2011 it was confirmed that the U.S. Seventeenth Air Force was operating General Atomics MQ-9A Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles from the airport for reconnaissance over Somalia.[5] Master Sergeant James Fisher, spokesman for the 17th Air Force, said that an unspecified number of Air Force personnel are working at the Ethiopian airfield “to provide operation and technical support for our security assistance programs.” He also said that the drone flights “will continue as long as the government of Ethiopia welcomes our cooperation on these varied security programs.”[5] The United States military has spent millions of dollars upgrading the airbase to handle the Reapers, and is being used to surveil al-Shabab, but will not conduct airstrikes from the base.[6] However, according to OSGEOINT, mapped imagery of the MQ-9A ranges may also suggest mission support to other countries outside of Somalia.[7]

Air Force (magazine notes in its 2012/13 annual survey of units that the 409th Air Expeditionary Group operates ISR aircraft from unspecified locations in the United States Air Forces Africa area of responsibility.[8] In early April 2012, the second drone crash in four months was reported at the Reaper detachment in Mahe, Seychelles.[9]

The enclave at the base closed down during January 2016.[10][11]

References
  1. "Arba Minch Airport". Ethiopian Airports Enterprise. Archived from the original on 29 April 2012.
  2. Airport information for HAAM from DAFIF (effective October 2006)
  3. Airport information for AMH at Great Circle Mapper. Source: DAFIF (effective October 2006).
  4. "Domestic Route Map". Ethiopian Airlines.
  5. Whitlock, Craig (27 October 2011), "U.S. Drone Base in Ethiopia is Operational", The Washington Post
  6. "US flies drones from Ethiopia to fight Somali militants". BBC News. 28 October 2011.
  7. "Ethiopia Imagery & The US Drone Deployments for AFRICOM - A Comment". OSGEOINT. 6 April 2012.
  8. http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Magazine/2013/0513fullissue.pdf. See also http://www.179aw.ang.af.mil/resources/biographies/bio.asp?id=18049 Archived 2015-03-05 at the Wayback Machine.
  9. Editorial, Reuters. "Drone crashes in Seychelles, second in four months". U.S. Retrieved 2018-08-20.
  10. AirForces Monthly. Stamford, Lincolnshire, England: Key Publishing Ltd. March 2016. p. 17.
  11. "As New Threats Emerge, U.S. Closes Drone Base in Ethiopia". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2018-08-20.
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