Asmara International Airport
| Asmara International Airport | |||||||||||||||
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| File:Nasair Eritrea Boeing 737-200-1.jpg
An Eritrean Airlines Boeing 737 at the Asmara International Airport.
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IATA: ASM – ICAO: HHAS
 ASM
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| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Military/Public | ||||||||||||||
| Serves | Asmara | ||||||||||||||
| Location | Asmara, Eritrea | ||||||||||||||
| Hub for | Nasair Eritrea | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 7,661 ft / 2,335 m | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | ||||||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||||||
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Asmara International Airport, formerly known as Yohannes IV International Airport (IATA: ASM, ICAO: HHAS), is an airport in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea.
History
The Asmara airport was created by the Italian colonial authorities in 1922, the first such facility to be opened in Italian Eritrea. It served as the main military airport in the territory. In the mid-1930s, the airport (called Aeroporto Civile di Asmara) began offering civilian and commercial flights.
On 7 July 1935, an agreement was signed with Brtitish "Imperial Airways" to connect Asmara to Khartoum. A regular Kassala-Khartoum-Asmara-Massawa 770 km commercial route was subsequently started with a Caproni 133 of the Italian Ala Littoria.[1]
Additionally, a regular Asmara-Assab- Mogadishu commercial route was started in summer 1935, with an Ala Littoria Caproni Ca.133 providing 13-hour flights from the Mogadishu airport to Italian Eritrea. The aircraft had a maximal capacity of 18 passengers, which at the time was a record. In 1936, Ala Littoria launched an intercontinental connection between Mogadishu-Asmara-Khartoum-Tripoli and Rome. The voyage lasted four days and was one of the first long range flights in the world.[1]
During World War II, the airport was nearly destroyed by the British. It was later renovated in the 1950s, and reopened to offer flights to Addis Ababa and other cities in Ethiopia. With Eritrea's independence in the 1990s, the airport became an international portal to the new nation.
In April 2003, after improvements to the airport's runways, Eritrean Airlines started regular services between Asmara and Frankfurt, Milan, Nairobi and Rome.
Facilities
The Asmara International Airport is the largest airport in Eritrea.
In 2004, it served 136,526 passengers (+11.8% vs. 2003).
The airport has capacity restrictions due to its small terminal, short runway and 1.5-mile altitude. Consequently, large jet aircraft (like an A380, MD-11 or 747) cannot fly to the airport. Aircraft of this size would instead need to use the Massawa International Airport on the Eritrean coast.
Airlines
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| EgyptAir | Cairo |
| Eritrean Airlines | Jeddah |
| flydubai | Dubai-International[2] |
| Nova Airways | Khartoum |
| Qatar Airways | Doha[3] |
| Sudan Airways | Khartoum |
| Turkish Airlines | Istanbul-Atatürk [4] |
Destinations
As of November 2015[update], "Eritrean Airlines" serves the following destinations from Asmara International Airport:
| Country | City | Airport Name | Notes | Refs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Egypt | Cairo | Cairo International Airport | — | [5] |
| Eritrea | Asmara | Asmara International Airport | Hub | [5] |
| Germany | Frankfurt | Frankfurt Airport | Terminated | |
| Italy | Milan | Malpensa International Airport | — | [5] |
| Italy | Rome | Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport | Terminated | |
| Saudi Arabia | Jeddah | King Abdulaziz International Airport | — | [5] |
| South Africa | Cape Town | Cape Town International Airport | Terminated | |
| South Africa | Johannesburg | OR Tambo International Airport | Terminated | |
| Sudan | Khartoum | Khartoum International Airport | — | [5] |
| Sudan | Port Sudan | Port Sudan New International Airport | Terminated | |
| United Arab Emirates | Dubai | Dubai International Airport | — | [5] |
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://www.flydubai.com/en/news/article/flydubai-announces-flights-to-eritreas-capital-asmara/
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Archived 24 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine
References
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.
External links
- Airport information for HHAS at World Aero Data. Data current as of October 2006.
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| General History | ||
| Infrastructures | ||
| Related articles | ||
| Colonial troops | ||
- Use dmy dates from May 2014
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles containing potentially dated statements from November 2015
- Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
- Airports in Eritrea
- Buildings and structures in Asmara
- World War II airfields in Italian Eritrea
- Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command in Central and South Africa
- Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces
- Airports established in 1922
- Italian Eritrea
