Asmara International Airport
| Asmara International Airport | |||||||||||||||
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| IATA: ASM – ICAO: HHAS | |||||||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Military/Public | ||||||||||||||
| Serves | Asmara, Eritrea | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 7,661 ft / 2,335 m | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 15°17′30.67″N 38°54′38.40″E / 15.2918528°N 38.9106667°ECoordinates: 15°17′30.67″N 38°54′38.40″E / 15.2918528°N 38.9106667°E | ||||||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||||||
  ASM Location of airport in Eritrea | |||||||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||||||
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Asmara International Airport, formerly known as Yohannes IV International Airport (IATA: ASM, ICAO: HHAS), is the international airport of Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, and also the country's largest airport.
History
The 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][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. In 2004, it served 136,526 passengers (+11.8% vs. 2003).
Facilities
The airport has capacity restrictions due to its smallish terminal, shortish (for hot'n'high) runway and 1.5-mile (2300m.) altitude. Consequently, some large jet aircraft (like an A380, MD-11 or 747) cannot fly to the airport. Unsuitable aircraft would instead need to use the Massawa International Airport on the Eritrean coast. Lufthansa, however, operated Airbus A340 aircraft on a FRA-JED-ASM service as recently as 2012.
The airport is also an Eritrean Air Force base.
Airlines and destinations
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| EgyptAir | Cairo |
| Eritrean Airlines | Cairo, Dubai-International, Jeddah, Khartoum, Milan-Malpensa |
| flydubai | Dubai-International[2] |
| Nova Airways | Khartoum |
| Qatar Airways | Doha (ends 3 December 2016)[3] |
| Sudan Airways | Khartoum |
| Turkish Airlines | Istanbul-Atatürk[4] |
References
This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.
- 1 2 Flavio Riccitelli (A.I.D.A.). "ALA LITTORIA S.A. (1934–1941)". Il Postalista. Retrieved 7 October 2013.
- ↑ http://www.flydubai.com/en/news/article/flydubai-announces-flights-to-eritreas-capital-asmara/
- ↑ "Qatar ends Asmara serice in Dec 2016". Airlineroute. Retrieved 25 November 2016.
- ↑ "Turkish Airlines Adds Asmara Service from late-August 2014". Airline Route. 5 May 2014. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
External links
Media related to Asmara International Airport at Wikimedia Commons
- Airport information for HHAS at World Aero Data. Data current as of October 2006.
| Main authorities |  Eritrea Italiana. Red points are the new borders of Eritrea, enlarged in 1936 in the Governorate of Eritrea | |
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| Governors |
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| General History | ||
| Infrastructures | ||
| Related articles | ||
| Colonial troops | ||