[1] It is named after seventeenth-century jigjiga ruler Garad Wiil-Waal.

[4] Jijiga's original airfield is located northwest of the city center at 09°21′38″N 42°47′16″E / 9.36056°N 42.78778°E / 9.36056; 42.78778 (Garaad Wiil-waal Airport (old)).

The plane was a Fiat AS-1 with 85 hp engine, a training airplane bought in 1929.

The first tests in air pilot training in Ethiopia were passed at the Garad Wilwal Airport by Mishka Babitcheff and Asfaw Ali on 1 and 4 September 1930.

[5] By the 1990s, the Garad Wilwal Airport was one of 10 bases of the Ethiopian Air Force.