Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport

Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport is the principal airport of the Union of the Comoros, an archipelago nation in the Mozambique Channel between Madagascar and the East African coast. Named after Prince Said Ibrahim ben Ali, a 20th-century Comorian political figure, the airport is located in Hahaya 12 mi (20 km) north of Moroni, the Comorian capital, at 93 ft (28 m) elevation on Grande Comore (Ngazidja) — the largest of the three main islands that constitute the independent Comoros. The airport is the sole scheduled-international gateway to a country of roughly 870,000 people distributed across Grande Comore, Anjouan, and Mohéli (the neighbouring Mayotte remains a French overseas department rather than part of the Union). The airport handles 6 routes across 5 destinations through 5 airlines. AB Aviation (the Comorian national carrier) provides regional inter-island and East African services. The international network is dominated by Ethiopian Airlines (via Addis Ababa), Kenya Airways (via Nairobi), Madagascar Airlines (Antananarivo), and Air Tanzania (Dar es Salaam), with periodic additional service to the Gulf. The route network is structured around feeding Comorian diaspora and business flows through major East African and Ethiopian hubs onto European and Asian connections, reflecting the archipelago's geography midway between Africa and Madagascar. The single asphalt runway 02/20 measures 9,514 ft (2,900 m), sufficient for widebody operations and capable of supporting the occasional Boeing 787 and Airbus A330 that operates charter and diplomatic flights. The terminal is a compact single-building facility that has been periodically upgraded. The airport is operated by Aéroports des Comores (ADC), the Comorian national airport authority. Moroni's volcanic setting on the flanks of Mount Karthala — one of the world's largest active volcanoes — produces occasional ash-related operational disruptions during eruption cycles.