Welwitschia Mirabilis International Airport guide

Welwitschia Mirabilis International Airport serves Moçâmedes, the capital of Namibe Province on Angola's south-western Atlantic coast. Its ICAO code is FNMO. The airport sits at 70 metres above sea level, and its single asphalt runway, 08/26, is 2,500 metres long.

It opened in 1960 as Aeroporto de Moçâmedes, replacing a shorter aero club strip that the growing town had surrounded. The runway was lengthened around 1972 to take larger jets, and the civil facilities were finished in 1977. After independence it was named Yuri Gagarin Airport, a name that stayed in the IATA and ICAO listings until 2014. A renovation costing about 90 million US dollars reopened the airport on 13 February 2014.

Scheduled service is thin. TAAG Angola Airlines is the airline that connects Namibe with Luanda. The airport also has military use. Certification for international flights has been pursued by the provincial government, with the aim of opening direct links to neighbouring Namibia and South Africa.