Malabo International Airport

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Malabo International Airport
IATA: SSG - ICAO: FGSL
Summary
Airport type		Military/Public
Operator		Aeropuertos De Guinea Ecuatorial (ADGE)
Serves		Malabo
Elevation AMSL		76 ft (23 m)
Coordinates		03°45′18″N, 08°42′31″E
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
05/23	9,647	2,940	Concrete

Malabo Airport or Saint Isabel Airport (IATA: SSG, ICAO: FGSL) is an airport located at Punta Europa, Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea. The airport is named after the capital, Malabo, approximately 9 kilometres to the east. Until the discovery of oil in the borders of Equatorial Guinea in the mid-90's, the airport was a tin-roofed shack that only serviced one international flight, the government was the main user of the airport. Today it is used mainly by two opposing groups; the Oil industry and conservationists. Dutch airline KLM has renamed one of their planes after Teodoro Obiang, the president of Equatorial Guinea. During the Nigerian Civil War, the airport was used as a base for flights into Biafra.

The old tin shack that used to greet arrivals has been replaced by a modern airport lounge. The airport now receives a comfortable amount of foreign traffic, although parts of the runway are in need of repair. Despite recent progress, Malabo airport is one of only two paved airports in Equatorial Guinea, according to CIA world factbook's entry for the country, with the other being Bata Airport. The hangars can service large aircraft like the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 or the C-130 Hercules and the airport served 34,500 passengers in 2001.