<h2 class="blog-hed2 pb-lg-4 pb-3 text-lg-center">History Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport</h2>
<p class="blog-para">&gt;Before August 2021, the Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport was at an old location, in the Itawa suburb of Ndola (south-east of the city centre). Ndola's airport in Itawa officially became a civilian airport in the 1950s after first being used as a military base.Previously, it was known as Ndola Airport and in September 2011, President Michael Sata decided to rename the airport in honour of Simon Kapwepwe, the nation's former vice-president.</p>
<p class="blog-para">&gt;On 5 August 2021, Ndola's airport was officially moved from Itawa to a new address, 15 kilometres west of the city centre, just north of the Dag Hammarskj&ouml;ld Crash Site Memorial, which is its current address. While under construction, the airport's current location was known as the Copperbelt International Airport until construction finished in August 202 when it was commissioned by President Edgar Lungu.At that point, it was renamed Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport, the name of the original airport. The new airport also retained the same IATA code (NLA).</p>
<p class="blog-para">&gt;The new airport was engineered by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC International) at a cost of $397 million.It was expected to be completed in Mid-2020</p>
<p class="blog-para">&gt;but was delayed by setbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 05 August 2021, President Edgar Lungu commissioned the opening of the new airport,although it took about two more months for all operations to complete moving from the old airport to the new airport 15 kilometres west of the city centre. The airport started operations on 07 October 2021</p>
<p class="blog-para">&gt;As such, the old airport in the Itawa suburb is no-longer a commercial airport (no-longer named SMK International) and now belongs to the Zambian Air Force. On 30 July 2021, President Edgar Lungu gave the old airport location a name, Peter Zuze Air Force Base, named after Zambia's first indigenous air commander. Ndola remains having one commercial airport.</p>
<p class="blog-para">&gt;<strong>Facilities Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport</strong></p>
<p class="blog-para">&gt;The airport has a single runway, designated 09/27 and 3,500 metres (11,500 ft) in length</p>
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<p><img class="img-fluid p-lg-0 rounded w-100" title="History  Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport" src="../../../main/img/airport/simo/1.webp" alt="History  Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport"></p>