Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Juba International Airport is South Sudan's principal gateway, sitting on the western bank of the White Nile a few kilometres northeast of the capital's business district. It is a single-runway field handling international, domestic, cargo, military and humanitarian traffic, and remains a busy but basic operation for visiting pilots.
Juba International Airport (ICAO: HJJJ, IATA: JUB) is the main international airport of South Sudan, serving the capital city of Juba. It is operated by the Civil Aviation Authority of South Sudan and functions as a multi-use public and military aerodrome, handling scheduled international and domestic airline services alongside cargo flights, South Sudanese military operations and a substantial volume of humanitarian and United Nations traffic. For a simulator pilot the field is interesting less for its infrastructure than for its role as the primary aviation lifeline into a young and often difficult operating environment, with a single long hard runway serving everything from wide-body relief flights to light utility aircraft.
The airport lies on the western bank of the White Nile, about 5 km northeast of Juba's central business district, in Central Equatoria State. The field's coordinates are 4.8719N, 31.6011E.
Juba has a single physical runway, 13/31, aligned northwest-southeast, with a hard surface and a length of 7,875 ft. There is no parallel or crossing runway.
Juba Tower provides an approach and tower service on 118.4 MHz, with an HF frequency of 11.3 MHz also available. There is no ILS at the field. Runway 13/31 was fitted with a simple approach lighting system, runway edge lighting and PAPI for both approach directions when a new lighting system was commissioned around the time of South Sudan's independence in July 2011, allowing night operations that were not previously possible.
Specific published circuit heights or joining procedures are not detailed in available sources, though pilots should expect a mixed traffic environment combining airline, cargo, military and humanitarian flights operating to the single runway, with PAPI guidance available on both 13 and 31.
The White Nile forms an obvious and unmistakable landmark running past the western side of the airport, and the built-up area of Juba's central business district lies a short distance to the southwest, providing a useful reference for orientation when approaching the field.
The site's aviation history stretches back to 1929, when the first airfield at Juba was cleared. The Shell Company built the original runway in 1931, surfaced with crushed laterite, and that same year Imperial Airways opened the Croydon to Tanganyika Territory portion of its Cape to Cairo air route, establishing a mooring place near Rejaf south of Juba for its Calcutta flying boats operating between Khartoum and Kisumu. The aerodrome was expanded and cleared again in 1934, requiring the relocation of residents who had settled on the land. By 1976 the runway had grown to 2,400 by 45 metres and been paved with asphalt, though access roads to the terminal remained unsurfaced and were reported as almost impassable in the rainy season; the field's old radio beacon and a weak VHF set were the only navigation and communication aids, and there was no field lighting. In February 1977 the airport was the site of an unsuccessful coup attempt by ex-Anyanya forces. From 2011 the airport underwent significant improvement, including terminal expansion, runway resurfacing and the installation of a new lighting system, commissioned on the day of South Sudan's independence with approach lights, edge lighting, taxiway and apron lighting, illuminated windsocks, a rotating beacon and PAPI for both runway directions. Despite this investment the airport was ranked among the world's worst by the Guide to Sleeping in Airports survey in 2016, 2017 and 2019, a period during which the terminal consisted of two tents handling customs, immigration, arrivals and departures. A new, smaller terminal built by a Chinese contractor was inaugurated on 29 October 2018.
Juba International Airport continues to operate as South Sudan's principal international gateway, used by international and domestic airlines, cargo operators and chartered commercial flights, as well as the South Sudanese military. It is heavily used by United Nations agencies including UNMISS and UNHAS, the World Food Programme, the ICRC and numerous non-governmental organisations for relief flights into the country.
