Beira International Airport — Beira, Mozambique

Beira International Airport, known by the code BEW, sits just 33 feet above sea level in Beira, Mozambique's second-largest city and a major port on the Indian Ocean coast. One runway carries the airport's traffic, linking this central Mozambican port city to the capital Maputo and to regional destinations across southern Africa. Beira itself sits at the mouth of the Pungwe River and has long served as a vital gateway for landlocked neighbors including Zimbabwe and Malawi, whose trade routes to the sea run through the city's port facilities. In March 2019, Cyclone Idai struck the region with catastrophic force, flooding much of Beira and cutting off many overland routes for weeks, during which BEW became a critical staging point for humanitarian relief flights bringing in aid workers and supplies. The airport's low-lying position near the coast leaves it exposed to the cyclones that periodically sweep in from the Indian Ocean during the region's storm season.