PHOTO-ESSAY: Aden Adde International. A symbol of a resurgent city
Editor’s Note: This is the Second installment of a new weekly photo-essay series we have put together to share with our readers. Somalia is presently undergoing an extraordinary economic and political development as the terrorist group Al Shabab is pushed from key urban centers and Somalis return from all over the world to rebuild their nation. This new weekly photo-essay series will tell this new chapter of Somalia.
Our second feature deals with the rapid renovation and expansion of Mogadishu’s Aden Adde International Airport. Originally built in 1928, the Aden Adde Airport was the first of its kind in East Africa and initially used by the Italian colonialists as a military facility and airport. It carried regular flights between Mogadishu and Eritrea, another Italian Colony in East Africa. In 1936, Aden Adde’s first intercontinental flight between Mogadishu to Roma became one of the longest at the time.
Following Somalia’s independence in 1960, the airport was expanded and became the hub of the country’s flag carrier Somali Airlines. The airport also housed the Somali Air Corps which maintained its facilities at the airport. The Somali Air Academy was hosted at the Aden Adde International Airport. Following the Somali Civil War, the airport ceased to exist. In 2013, a Turkish firm Favori was given management of the airport and it promised to modernize and expand the airport. The $10-million renovation project was designed to increase the airport’s aircraft capacity to 60 daily.