Benina International Airport

Benina International Airport (IATA: BEN, ICAO: HLLB) (Arabic: مطار بنينة الدولي) serves Benghazi, Libya. It is located in the town of Benina, 19 km east of Benghazi, from which it takes its name. The airport is operated by the Civil Aviation and Meteorology Bureau of Libya and is the second largest in the country after Tripoli International Airport. Benina International is also the secondary hub of both Buraq Air and flag carrier, Libyan Airlines.

On 22 February 2011, in the opening week of the Libyan uprising, Al Jazeera reported that the airport's runways had been destroyed, preventing aircraft from operating. That was not the case, and the airport operated normally.^[1]

History

During World War II, the airport was used by the United States Army Air Force Ninth Air Force during the Eastern Desert Campaign. Known as Soluch Airfield,^[2] it was used by the 376th Bombardment Group, which flew B-24 Liberator heavy bombers from the airfield between 22 February - 6 April 1943.^[3] Once the combat units moved west, it was used as a logistics hub by Air Transport Command. It functioned as a stopover en-route to Payne Field near Cairo or to Mellaha Field near Tripoli on the North African Cairo-Dakar transport route for cargo, transiting aircraft and personnel.

Future plans

A new terminal with a capacity of 5 million passengers will be developed north of the existing runway at Benina International under a 720 million LYD (€ 415 million) first-stage contract awarded to Canada's SNC-Lavalin. The final cost is estimated at 1.1 billion LYD (€ 630 million). As with Tripoli International Airport, the new terminal was designed by Aéroports de Paris Engineering. Preliminary work and site preparation has started, but it remains unclear when the terminal will be open for operation.^[4]

The contract for Benina International Airport includes construction of a new international terminal, runway and apron. The new airport is part of an extensive new infrastructure programme being undertaken by the government of Libya throughout the country.

Airlines and destinations

Note: All flights were suspended during the Libyan civil war. So far, seven airlines (Afriqiyah Airways, EgyptAir, Libyan Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian and Tunisair) have resumed service.

Current service

Pre civil war service that has not resumed

Cargo

Accidents and incidents

• On 4 April 1943, Lady Be Good World War II B-24 Liberator crashed south of Soluch Field and was lost for 15 years.^[5]
• On 9 August 1958, Vickers Viscount VP-YNE of Central African Airways crashed 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) south east of Benina International Airport, killing 36 of the 54 people on board. See: 1958 Central African Airways plane crash
• On 22 January 1971, a Douglas DC-3 of Ethiopian Airlines was hijacked on a domestic passenger flight from Bahir Dar Airport to Gondar Airport by four Eritrean hijackers. The aircraft was forced to land at Benghazi Airport.^[6]

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

External links

• Accident history for BEN at Aviation Safety Network
• Airport information for HLLB at World Aero Data. Data current as of October 2006.