# Bujumbura Melchior Ndadaye International Airport (BJM)

> Bujumbura, BI · IATA: BJM · ICAO: HBBA · Medium Airport · Cargo Hub

## Quick Facts

| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| IATA | `BJM` |
| ICAO | `HBBA` |
| City | Bujumbura |
| Country | BI |
| Type | Medium Airport |
| Elevation | 787 m |
| Cargo | ✅ |
| GPS | -3.32402, 29.31850 |

## Description

No railway, no coastline and one paved international runway: Burundi's air freight funnels entirely through Melchior Ndadaye International in Bujumbura (IATA: BJM, ICAO: HBBA), 11 km north-west of the city on a 3,600 m strip. State agency SOBUGEA is the sole ground handler and runs the roughly 2,000 m² freight store. Capacity is overwhelmingly belly hold on Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, RwandAir, Uganda Airlines and Air Tanzania, with dedicated freighter movements occasional rather than scheduled; Astral Aviation covers Bujumbura within its East African network. Clearance is handled by the Office Burundais des Recettes (OBR) under East African Community customs rules. Anything heavy or price-sensitive goes by truck instead: roughly 1,400 km down the Central Corridor to Dar es Salaam, or about 2,000 km along the Northern Corridor to Mombasa, with the Lake Tanganyika port serving regional traffic. Kigali (KGL), just over 300 road kilometres away, and Nairobi (NBO) upstream are the realistic fallbacks when BJM capacity falls short. A Sino-Burundian rehabilitation programme running since August 2024 is lengthening the runway and adding a new control tower, with a new passenger terminal planned for phase two.

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*Freight Academy — Airport Profile: [https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/airports/bujumbura-melchior-ndadaye-international-airport-bjm](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/airports/bujumbura-melchior-ndadaye-international-airport-bjm)*

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