Somalia · elevation 6 ft AMSL
· 11.9582, 50.7480
Alula Airport is an airport with the ICAO code HCMA and the IATA code ALU. Country: Somalia. Nearest settlement listed in the database: Alula. OurAirports classifies it as a small airport. Its ICAO code starts with the HC prefix, which marks airports in Somalia. The four-letter code HCMA is used in flight operations and weather reports, while the three-letter IATA code ALU is used for ticketing and baggage handling. The airport reference point sits at 11°57'30"N, 50°44'53"E, at an elevation of 6 ft (2 m) above sea level. The applicable time zone is Africa/Mogadishu.
Aerial imagery showing the runway and apron layout - the zoom is matched to the longest runway.
| Threshold | Course | Length | Width | Surface |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 07 | 70° | 1,080 m (3,543 ft) | no data | not specified in the available data |
| 25 | 250° |
The course is derived from the runway designator (number × 10), not from a survey - the actual magnetic bearing can differ by a few degrees.
Declared distances (TORA, TODA, ASDA, LDA) are published in the national AIP - they are not part of this table.
According to the infobox on the English Wikipedia, Alula Airport has one runway: 07/25 - 1,080 m long (3,543 ft), surface not specified in the available data.
No OurAirports data is available for this airport, so the figures above come from Wikipedia - a community-edited source that can be out of date. The infobox also gives no runway width. Treat these numbers as indicative and check the current AIP before flying.
The thresholds are oriented as follows: 07/25 on 70° and 250° magnetic. A threshold designator is its magnetic heading divided by ten (ICAO Annex 14), so the runway axis can be read straight off the numbers.
For the 07/25 axis, wind from the south (around 160°) or from the north (around 340°) blows perpendicular to the runway and produces the largest crosswind component. Wind from around 70° or 250° acts along the runway, as a headwind or a tailwind. The decoder on this page computes those components automatically from the current METAR.
Weather reports for Alula Airport are published under the ICAO code HCMA. A METAR is an observation of current conditions, usually issued every 30 or 60 minutes; a TAF is a forecast for the airport area, typically covering 9 to 30 hours.
The decoder breaks the HCMA report down into its parts: wind direction and speed including gusts and variability, visibility (including CAVOK and directional minimum visibility), weather phenomena by WMO code, cloud layers with their bases, temperature and dew point, QNH pressure, and the resulting flight category - VFR, MVFR, IFR or LIFR - using FAA thresholds.
Not every airport issues its own reports; many smaller airfields have no weather station. If no current data is available for HCMA, check the nearby airports listed below.
Reports always use UTC (the Z suffix). The Africa/Mogadishu zone stays at GMT+03:00 year-round, so converting to local time is always the same shift.
The closest airports in the database, measured in a straight line from the reference point, are Candala Airport (HCMC, 105 km), Hafun Airstrip (HCBA, 177 km), Hafun Old Base Airstrip (HCBG, 183 km). When no report is available for HCMA, they usually give the best approximation of conditions in the area.
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