Maun Airport serves as the main gateway to the Okavango Delta and the Moremi Game Reserve. Many tour operators offer chartered flights over the Delta and to Botswana destinations such as the Makgadikgadi Pans, one of the largest seasonal wetlands in Africa. Servicing the many lodges in the area is a major activity, including the transport of passengers and provisions, with short-distance flights taking a few minutes where the journey by 4x4 truck would take several hours. These operations, during their peak in the June to August high season, make the airport the second-busiest in Africa for aircraft movements.[3]
The aircraft were awaited as they brought news of the outside world, mail, medicines, foodstuffs, and above all, new people to a community hundreds of kilometres from the nearest big town. The first air service began in the 1930s, using a landing strip that today is Maun's main street. The strip was later moved away from the town centre to the present site of the airport.
The earliest known flights over the Okavango took place in July 1925, and were part of a survey of rivers in the region, using aircraft based in Livingstone. Two Airco D.H. 9 type, numbers 142 and 144 of the then Union Defense Force of South Africa, were used, piloted by Captain C.W. Meredith and Lieutenant L. Tasker. They routed to Livingstone from Johannesburg via Bulawayo.[7]
Airlink commenced direct flights between Cape Town and Maun starting in March 2016.[8] In October 2016, Air Namibia suspended scheduled flights to Maun Airport.[4] In May 2018 government officials confirmed their commitment to refurbish and upgrade the existing airport building.[9]
In March 2000 a Cessna 414 crashed on its way from Gaborone to Maun. The pilot and a passenger walked for over 200 kilometres (120 mi) to find help.[18]
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