Transportation in

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeas ...

is poorly developed. The country of almost 14 million has 39

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

s, 6 with paved runways and 33 with unpaved runways. It has of

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

s, all

narrow-gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

and about 45 percent of its roads are paved. Though it is landlocked, Malawi also has of

waterway A waterway is any navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other languages. A first distinction is necessary b ...

s on Lake Malawi and along the

Shire River The Shire is the largest river in Malawi. It is the only outlet of Lake Malawi and flows into the Zambezi River in Mozambique. Its length is . The upper Shire River issues from Lake Malawi and runs approximately before it enters shallow Lake Malo ...

Highways

Recent assessments indicate that there were of roads in the country; of these, (45 percent) were paved. The remaining were not paved.

Ports, harbours and waterways

Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi) and Shire River (144 kilometres) provide the major waterways. There is a

railhead In the UK, railheading refers to the practice of travelling further than necessary to reach a rail service, typically by car. The phenomenon is common among commuters seeking a more convenient journey. Reasons for railheading include, but are ...

at the port of Chipoka, Salima district in central Malawi. Smaller ports exist at

Monkey Bay Main north-south street of the town. Monkey Bay or Lusumbwe is a town in Mangochi which is in the Mangochi District in the Southern Region of Malawi. The town is on the shore of Lake Malawi and is one of the main ports on Lake Malawi. The popul ...

Nkhata Bay Nkhata Bay or just Nkhata is the capital of the Nkhata Bay District in Malawi. It is on the shore of Lake Malawi (formerly Lake Nyasa), east of Mzuzu, and is one of the main ports on Lake Malawi. The population of Nkhata Bay was 14,274 accord ...

Nkhotakota Nkhotakota (Un-kho-tah-kho-tuh) (formerly Kota Kota) (name derived from the Chichewa for "Corner Corner") is a town and one of the districts in the Central Region of Malawi. It is on the shore of Lake Malawi (formerly Lake Nyasa) and is one of ...

and

Chilumba Chilumba is a town in Malawi. It is an urban centre in Karonga District. Location Chilumba is located along the western shores of Lake Malawi, at the southern end of Karonga District, in the Northern Region of Malawi. This location is approxim ...

. The

MV Ilala MV ''Ilala'', formally ''Ilala II'', is a motor ship that has plied Lake Malawi in East Africa since 1951. Every week she crosses the lake all the way north to Chilumba, Malawi, near Tanzania (about from Monkey Bay) and then returns to Monkey ...

connects Likoma Island with the mainland, as well as the Malawian and Mozambican sides of the lake. In 2010, a port in Nsanje was opened to connect the country through the Shire and Zambezi rivers with the Indian Ocean. As of 2015, the port is not operational due to unresolved contracts with Mozambique.

Air transport

Malawian Airlines Limited is the national airline of Malawi which operates regional passenger service. Based in Lilongwe, it is 51% owned by the Malawi government. 49% are controlled by

Ethiopian Airlines Ethiopian Airlines (commonly referred to as Ethiopian; am, የኢትዮጵያ አየር መንገድ, translit=Ye-Ītyōṗṗyā āyer menged), formerly ''Ethiopian Air Lines'' (EAL), is the flag carrier of Ethiopia, and is wholly owned by ...

The airline's main base of operations is

Lilongwe International Airport Kamuzu International Airport is an international airport serving Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi. It is also known as Lilongwe International Airport. History The airport was built in 1977 by the Nello L. Teer Company, taking over most ...

, with a secondary hub at Chileka International Airport.

Airports

In 2001 there was a total of 44 airports in the country. As of 2015, two airports have scheduled passenger services.

Paved runways

''total:'' 6
''over 3,047 m:'' 1
''1,524 to 2,437 m:'' 1
''914 to 1,523 m:'' 4 (2002)

Unpaved runways

''total:'' 37
''1,524 to 2,437 m:'' 1
''914 to 1,523 m:'' 14
''under 914 m:'' 22 (2002)

Rail transport

Malawi Railways is the national rail network in

, run by a government corporation until privatisation in 1999. As of 1 December 1999 the Central East African Railways, a consortium led by

Railroad Development Corporation The Railroad Development Corporation is an American railroad holding company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It operates several short line railroads outside the United States and acts as an investor, with management and institutional inves ...

, won the right to operate the network. This was the first rail privatisation in Africa which did not involve a parastatal operator. The rail network totalled 797 kilometres in 2001. It is a narrow gauge line with a track.

Railway links with adjacent countries

The , gauge line extends from the

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

n border at Mchinji in the west via Lilongwe to

Blantyre Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, L ...

and Makhanga in the south. At Nkaya Junction it links with the Nacala Corridor line going east via Nayuchi to

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

's deepwater port at

Nacala Nacala, also known as Cidade de Nacala or Nacala-Porto is a city on the northern coast of Mozambique. Located in the southwestern indentation of inner Fernao Veloso Bay, it is the deepest natural port on the east coast of Africa. Nacala serves as ...

on the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

. The link south from Makhanga to Mozambique's Beira corridor has been closed since the Mozambique Civil War, with plans for reconstruction not yet realised. There is no direct link with neighbouring

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

as there is a

break of gauge With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge (the distance between the rails, or between the wheels of trains designed to run on those rails) meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally cannot ...

, / . An extension from Mchinji to Chipata in

opened in 2010, and there is a proposal to eventually link up from there with the TAZARA railway at

Mpika Mpika is a town in the Muchinga Province of Zambia, lying at the junction of the M1 Road to Kasama and Mbala and the Tanzam Highway ( Great North Road) to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in the north-east and Lusaka in the south-west. It also has a r ...

. Direct linkage is available with

, however, which has the same gauge track. Linkage is called the Nacala Corridor line via Nayuchi to the port of

, and Nsanje to the

Dona Ana Bridge The Dona Ana Bridge spans the lower Zambezi River between the towns of Vila de Sena and Mutarara in Mozambique, effectively linking the two halves of the country. It was originally constructed as a railway bridge to link Malawi and the Moatize c ...

and Beira. The latter link has not been operational since the war in Mozambique and is in need of reconstruction.

Rail developments in 2006

In 2006, a Brazilian company ( VALE) announced plans to build a rail branch line to the

Moatize Moatize is the principal town and administrative center of Moatize District in western Mozambique's Tete Province. It is located on the eastern side of the Zambezi River at the confluence of the Moatize and Revuboe Rivers. After Tete, it is the ...

coal mine in western Mozambique from the Nacala Corridor line to export coal via the port of

; the link would cross Malawi. The national

map shows a proposed extension across the border to Chipata in

. Central East African Railways, previously a subsidiary of the Railroad Development Corporation, operates the privatised Malawi Railways network. Also in 2006, the president of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika asked his Mozambiquan counterpart,

Armando Guebuza Armando Emílio Guebuza (born 20 January 1943) is a Mozambican politician who was the third President of Mozambique from 2005 to 2015. Career Guebuza, born at Murrupula in Nampula Province, joined the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) at ...

, to consider the provision of a new 250 kilometre rail connection from Nsanje - the then-current southern extent of Malawi Railways - to the

port of

Chinde Chinde is a town of Mozambique, and a port for the Zambezi valley. It is located on the Chinde River, and is an important fishing center. It exports copra and sugar, and had a population of 16,500 in 1980. Chinde lies in Chinde District of Zambe ...

, near the mouth of the Zambesi.

Communications

As of 2007, there were 175,200 land line

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...

s in Malawi, and 1.051 million cell phones, which is approximately 8 cell phones per 100 people. The telephone system overall is described as rudimentary. In the past, Malawi's telecommunications system has been named as some of the poorest in Africa, but conditions are improving, with 130,000 land line telephones being connected between 2000 and 2007. Telephones are much more accessible in

urban Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

areas, with less than a quarter of land lines being in

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...

areas. There were 139,500

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

users as of 2007, and 3

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privat ...

s as of 2002. As of 2001 there were 14

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

s and 1

TV station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...