Maun Airport
Maun Airport | |||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
| Operator | Botswana Department of Civil Aviation | ||||||||||
| Serves | Maun | ||||||||||
| Location | Maun, Botswana | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 3,093 ft / 943 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 19°58′21″S 23°25′52″E / 19.97250°S 23.43111°E | ||||||||||
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| Runways | |||||||||||
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Maun Airport is an international airport serving the town of Maun in the northern part of Botswana (IATA: MUB, ICAO: FBMN).[1] It is an important part of the local infrastructure and serves as the main touristic gateway to the Okavango Delta and the Moremi Game Reserve. Additional popular tourist destinations like Chobe National Park or the Makgadikgadi Pans are within driving distance. Maun Airport is located about 5 km (3.1 mi) from the town center and is accessible by shuttle bus or taxi. Many tour operators offer chartered sightseeing flights over the Okavango Delta and vicinity. There are only a few scheduled flights daily to destinations in Botswana, South Africa and Namibia.[2] There are also a number of chartered flights to Botswana destinations such as the Makgadikgadi Pans, one of the largest seasonal wetlands in Africa.(C.Michael Hogan. 2008)
The airport has gone under recent expansion. A new Runway is in the process of being built. The terminal is small and is outdated. Plans for another new terminal is also in the process of being built.
Early history 1925-1939
The aircraft were awaited as they brought news of the outside world, mail, medicines, foodstuffs, and above all, new people to a community hundreds of kilometres from the nearest big town.
The first planes to land here were before World War II – in the 1930s, just a mere 30 or so years after the Wright brothers made their historic first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
The landing strip in those far-off days was what is today Maun’s main street, the strip later being moved away from the town centre to the present site of the airport.
The earliest known flights over the Okavango region took place in July 1925, and were part of a survey of the rivers of the Okavango region, using aircraft based in Livingstone. Two aircraft were used and both were the Airco D.H. 9 type, numbers 142 and 144 of the then Union Defense Force of South Africa, piloted by a Capt. C.W. Meredith and Lieut. L. Tasker. They routed to Livingstone from Johannesburg via Bulawayo.[3]
Airlines and destinations
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Air Botswana | Cape Town, Gaborone, Johannesburg-OR Tambo, Kasane, Victoria Falls |
| Air Namibia | Victoria Falls, Windhoek |
| Airlink | Johannesburg-OR Tambo |
Accidents
In March 2000 a Cessna 414 crashed on its way from Gaborone to Maun. The pilot and a passenger walked for over 200 kilometres to find help.
References
- Air Botswana (2009) Official Flight Schedule
- C. Michael Hogan (2008) Makgadikgadi, The Megalithic Portal, ed. A. Burnham [1]
- Maun Airport (MUB/FBMN) (2008) AZWorldAirports.com
- ^ Maun Airport, 2008
- ^ Air Botswana, 2009
- ^ http://ngamitimes.com/page14.html