Sir Seretse Khama International Airport

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Sir Seretse Khama International Airport
Aeropuerto Internacional Sir Seretse Khama de Gaborone, Botswana.jpg
IATA: GBE – ICAO: FBSK
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator Civil Government
Serves Gaborone
Location Gaborone, Botswana
Hub for Air Botswana
Elevation AMSL 3,299 ft / 1,006 m
Coordinates Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Map
GBE is located in Botswana
GBE
GBE
Location within Botswana
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
08/26 13,123 4,000[1] Concrete

Sir Seretse Khama International Airport (IATA: GBE, ICAO: FBSK), located 15 kilometres (9 mi) north of Gaborone, is the main international airport of the capital city of Botswana. The airport is named for Sir Seretse Khama, the first president of Botswana.[2] It was opened in 1984 and offers large capacity to handle regional and international traffic and has the largest passenger movement in the country.

Expansion

The government of Botswana has started a $61 million expansion plan to further develop the airport to accommodate increased traffic and larger planes.[citation needed]

Airlines and destinations

File:ZS-NMP FBSK 20090222.jpg
South African Express Bombardier Dash 8-Q300 at Gaborone Airport.
Airlines Destinations
Air Botswana Cape Town, Francistown, Harare, Johannesburg-Lanseria, Johannesburg-OR Tambo, Kasane, Lusaka, Maun, Victoria Falls
Airlink Johannesburg-OR Tambo[3]
Ethiopian Airlines Addis Ababa[4]
Kenya Airways Nairobi-Jomo Kenyatta
South African Express Johannesburg-OR Tambo
TAAG Angola Airlines Luanda

Incidents and accidents

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Further information: 1999 Air Botswana incident

On 11 October 1999, an Air Botswana pilot, Captain Chris Phatswe, commandeered a parked Aérospatiale ATR 42 aircraft A2-ABB without authorization in the early morning and took off. Once in the air, he asked by radio to speak to the president, Air Botswana's general manager, the station commander, central police station and his girlfriend, among others. Because the president was out of the country, he was allowed to speak to the vice president. In spite of all attempts to persuade him to land and discuss his grievances, he stated he was going to crash into some planes on the apron. After a total flying time of about 2 hours, he did two loops and then crashed at 200 knots (370 km/h; 230 mph) into Air Botswana's two other ATR 42s parked on the apron. The captain was killed but there were no other casualties.

Airline sources say the pilot had been grounded on medical reasons, refused reinstatement and regrounded until February 2000. Air Botswana operations were crippled, as the airline temporarily only had one plane left – a BAe 146 which was grounded with technical problems.[5]

Botswana Defence Force Air Wing

Botswana Defence Force Air Wing VIP Flight Wing is based at the airport.

Photographs

  • KhamaAirportExpansion.jpg

    Construction on the airport expansion

  • Air Botswana - Gaborone Airport.jpg

    Air Botswana plane at Khama Airport 2011

  • Aeropuerto Internacional Sir Seretse Khama.jpg

    Khama Airport 2011

  • Gaborone Airport.jpg

    Airport before expansion

  • KhamaInterior.jpg

    Old interior of Khama Airport

References

  1. ↑ Civil Aviation Authority of Botswana–Sir Seretse Khama International Airport (GBE)
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ http://www.news24.com/Travel/Flights/Airlink-launches-third-Botswana-route-20131107
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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