Arusha Airport

Back in 1953, a prominent Mateves coffee and sorghum farmer named Colonel Grey built what we now know as Arusha Airport. The airstrip changed hands just after Tanganyika won its independence in 1961, when ownership officially shifted to the government. East African Airways took charge of managing the site early on. However, when the East African Community collapsed in 1977, oversight fell to the Ministry of Agriculture, operating under the name Kilimo Hangar. This arrangement stood until 1999, when the government set up the Tanzania Airports Authority as a dedicated executive agency to run all state-owned airports and airstrips across the mainland.