Iringa Airport renovations

The airport in Iringa is not the most bustling airport and I wrote about previous much smaller renovations. When we first moved here, there was one 12-passenger plane servicing the city three times a week. In 2016, the former president resurrected the national carrier, Air Tanzania, and in 2019, a Bombardier Q400 began flying a few times a week at drastically lower prices than the smaller plane. This joy was shortlived. I had one successful flight to Dar es Salaam, and then rumors began to swirl about under capacity, politicians demanding planes for transport, and all sorts of other issues. In July 2019, I booked a flight that was rescheduled several times until it became apparent in December that services were being suspended indefinitely (I was never issued a refund). They were kind of bailed out by COVID-19, but they were in trouble long before the pandemic.

I’ve heard several different stories about why the Iringa airport needed a renovation, but the most frequently cited reason is that the runway needed to be expanded to receive larger planes. It’s a shame that they recently refurbished the airport buildings (within the last five years), only to build a totally new structure that is nearly the same size—just in an entirely new area on the opposite end of the property.

For aviation nerds:

Covering 353.44 hectares and located 18 kilometres northeast of Iringa town, the airport features a 2,100-metre-long, 30-metre-wide runway, a 155-metre taxiway, and a 180m x 126m aircraft parking apron. It can accommodate two large Bombardier Dash-8 Q400 aircraft and five smaller Caravan aircraft. The passenger terminal can handle 100 departing and 100 arriving passengers simultaneously, with a VIP lounge for up to 18 passengers.

The new runway is really nice, but I still don’t understand why they didn’t use the previously constructed infrastructure. They didn’t increase the capacity of arrivals or departures in any significant way. I’ve got an Air Tanzania flight booked next week, so let’s see how everything goes!