The Mwanza Airport is a commercial airport north of the Tanzanian city of Mwanza . It is located directly on Lake Victoria and is operated by the national airport authority “Tanzania Airports Authority”.
In March 2008, the freight apron and the connections to the taxiways were re-asphalted. In a modernization project started in 2012, the runway was extended from 2000 meters to over 3000 meters.
Characteristics
The airport runway (12/30) is 3113 meters long and 45 meters wide and is 1147 meters above sea level. An ILS approach to Mwanza is possible, depending on the season there is a risk of bird strikes.
Lake Victoria International is the second largest airport in Tanzania after Dar es Salaam in terms of flight movements and the third largest airport in terms of passenger numbers after Dar es Salaam and Arusha :
designation
2016
2017
Flight movements
13,355
13,095
Passengers
400.457
398.102
Freight in tons
2,051
2.125
Mwanza
Dar es Salaam
Bukoba
Kilimanjaro
Grumeti
Kigali
Seronera
Nairobi
Dodoma
Destinations from Mwanza
Precision Air Boeing B737 in Mwanza
Airlines and destinations
The airport is served by the airlines Air Tanzania , Precision Air , Astral Aviation and Coastal Aviation . Most flight connections are to Dar es Salaam with 38 flights a week. The airports in Bukoba , Kilimanjaro , Nairobi in Kenya and Kigali in Rwanda are also served daily. There are also regular flights to the Grumeti and Seronera airstrips and a weekly flight to Dodoma (as of 2020).
The following incidents occurred at the airport in Mwanza (as of 2020):
November 18, 1997: A Douglas DC-8 cargo aircraft landed on a night flight after three false approaches to the left of the runway. The plane caught fire. All four crew members survived the accident, the aircraft was total write. The pilot did not have a type approval for the aircraft and the airport was not approved for night approaches at the time.
February 3, 2000: On the flight from Khartoum to Mwanza, the illumination of the altimeter of a Boeing 707-351C transport aircraft of Trans Arabian Air Transport failed . Due to divergent altitude information, the copilot took off and climbed to 5500 feet and wanted to make a left turn. The master took command at 4400 feet and made a right turn. Just before the end of the turn, the copilot reported an altitude of 4100 feet. Almost aligned with the runway, he took command again when at the same moment the plane hit the ground two or three times, swerved to the left and came to a standstill in the lake. The five crew members survived and the aircraft was totaled.
March 23, 2005: An Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane operated by the Moldavian airline Transport rose to 29 meters after a normal take-off. Then the rise flattened and after 4.5 seconds the plane began to descend. After another four seconds, the master ordered the flaps to be retracted. At this point the aircraft was already sinking at 3.5 meters per second. When the crew noticed this and took countermeasures, it was too late and the plane crashed into Lake Victoria. All eight crew members died.
1 March 2010: On landing one came Boeing 737 of Air Tanzania broke in poor visibility on the runway out and the nose gear. All 45 passengers and seven crew members survived the accident, and the aircraft was totaled.
