Juba International Airport

Juba International Airport is the principal airport of South Sudan and the sole international gateway to the world's youngest internationally-recognized sovereign state, which declared independence in 2011. Located on the northern edge of Juba, the national capital, at a 1,513 ft (461 m) elevation on the White Nile, the airport has evolved rapidly from a modest regional field under Sudanese administration into an independent-country flag airport with a new Chinese-built passenger terminal opened in 2018 to replace the cramped former facility. Despite the country's fragile economic and security situation, JUB functions as one of the most operationally significant airports in the Horn of Africa region, handling heavy humanitarian, peacekeeping, and diplomatic traffic alongside commercial services. The airport handles 16 routes across 11 destinations through 10 airlines. No carrier runs a hub operation. South Supreme Airlines and South Sudan Airways provide domestic services, while Ethiopian Airlines (to Addis Ababa), Kenya Airways (Nairobi), EgyptAir (Cairo), Uganda Airlines (Entebbe), flydubai (Dubai), and RwandAir (Kigali) operate the principal international links. United Nations and World Food Programme charters operate heavily from the same field under UNHAS, supporting the UNMISS peacekeeping mission and humanitarian operations across South Sudan — activity that materially exceeds the commercial footprint in terms of aircraft movements. The single asphalt runway 13/31 measures 10,171 ft (3,100 m) at 1,513 ft (461 m) elevation, adequate for widebody aircraft including the Boeing 787s and 777s that occasionally operate charter and diplomatic flights. The runway surface was rehabilitated with Chinese-financed investment in the 2010s, and plans exist for a replacement airport at a more suitable site outside central Juba. A second parallel runway has been discussed as part of longer-term master plans. The airport is operated by the South Sudan Civil Aviation Authority and retains its ICAO identifier HJJJ reflecting the post-2011 independent South Sudanese registration.