# Berbera Airport (BBO)

> Berbera, SO · IATA: BBO · ICAO: HCMI · Medium Airport · Cargo Hub

## Quick Facts

| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| IATA | `BBO` |
| ICAO | `HCMI` |
| City | Berbera |
| Country | SO |
| Type | Medium Airport |
| Elevation | 9 m |
| Cargo | ✅ |
| GPS | 10.38504, 44.93672 |

## Description

Berbera's strength is the meeting of sea and air: a 4,140-metre runway, one of Africa's longest, sits beside the DP World deep-water port and the 1,200-hectare Berbera Economic Zone. Built by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and leased by NASA as a Space Shuttle emergency landing site from 1980 to 1991, the strip was rebuilt for passengers and freight with $55 million of UAE funding and reopened in 2021; Somaliland declared BBO (ICAO HCMI) open for international trade in March 2025. Scheduled carriers include Ethiopian Airlines, Turkish Airlines, flydubai and Jubba Airways, so almost all air freight moves as belly cargo — a dedicated freighter terminal is not confirmed. The free zone offers serviced plots, pre-built warehouses and a common-user facility run by DP World, while the upgraded Berbera corridor carries trucks inland to Hargeisa and on through Tog Wajaale into landlocked Ethiopia. DP World also links the port to Jebel Ali in Dubai on a nine-day feeder rotation, reinforcing the sea-air pitch. Hargeisa (HGA) is the practical alternative within Somaliland, Addis Ababa (ADD) or Djibouti (JIB) for volume. For shippers eyeing the Horn of Africa this remains a corridor in the making rather than a finished freight gateway.

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*Freight Academy — Airport Profile: [https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/airports/berbera-airport-bbo](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/airports/berbera-airport-bbo)*

*Markdown mirror: [https://www.freight-academy.com/api/md/airports/en/berbera-airport-bbo](https://www.freight-academy.com/api/md/airports/en/berbera-airport-bbo)*

*LLM-Summary (JSON): https://www.freight-academy.com/api/v1/airports/berbera-airport-bbo/llm-summary*