Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport — Ndola, Zambia

Copper wealth built modern Ndola, and Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport still reflects the mining industry's central role in Zambia's Copperbelt Province. NLA takes its name from a leading figure of Zambia's independence movement who later served as vice president under founding leader Kenneth Kaunda, a nod to the Copperbelt's outsized political influence during the struggle against colonial rule. Ndola ranks as Zambia's second city, and the airport supports mining companies, cross-border trade with the Democratic Republic of Congo just to the north, and a modest but steady flow of regional passenger traffic connecting to the capital, Lusaka, and other Southern African points. The Copperbelt's fortunes have risen and fallen with global copper prices for over a century, shaping both the physical landscape of mine dumps and smelters around Ndola and the rhythms of an economy still searching for greater diversification. Air links remain essential given the long overland distances separating the region from Zambia's other major population centers.