Tunis–Carthage International Airport

Tunis–Carthage Airport
Aéroport international de Tunis-Carthage
مطار تونس قرطاج الدولي
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator Tunisian Civil Aviation & Airports Authority
Location Tunis, Tunisia
Hub for
Elevation AMSL 22 ft / 7 m
Coordinates 36°51′04″N 010°13′38″E / 36.85111°N 10.22722°E / 36.85111; 10.22722Coordinates: 36°51′04″N 010°13′38″E / 36.85111°N 10.22722°E / 36.85111; 10.22722
Map
TUN

Location of airport in Tunisia

Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
01/19 3,200 10,499 Asphalt
11/29 2,840 9,318 Asphalt
Statistics (2014)
Passengers 5,146,000[1]

Tunis–Carthage Airport (French: Aéroport de Tunis-Carthage, Arabic: مطار تونس قرطاج الدولي, IATA: TUN, ICAO: DTTA) is the international airport of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia.[5] It serves as the home base for Tunisair, Tunisair Express, Nouvelair Tunisia, and Tunisavia. The airport is named for the historic city of Carthage, located just east of the airport.

History

Tunis Airport in 1952.

The history of the airport dates back to 1920 when the first seaplane base in Tunisia was built on the Lake of Tunis for the seaplanes of Compagnie Aéronavale.[6] The Tunis Airfield opened in 1938, serving around 5,800 passengers annually on the Paris-Tunis route.[7]

During World War II, the airport was used by the United States Air Force Twelfth Air Force as a headquarters and command control base for the Italian Campaign of 1943. The following known units were assigned:[8]

Once the combat units moved to Italy, Air Transport Command used the airport as a major transshipment hub for cargo, transiting aircraft and personnel. It functioned as a stopover en route to Algiers airport or to Mellaha Field near Tripoli on the North African Cairo-Dakar transport route. Later, as the Allied forces advanced, it also flew personnel and cargo to Naples, Italy.

Construction on the Tunis-Carthage Airport, which was fully funded by France, began in 1944, and in 1948 the airport become the main hub for Tunisair. The airline started operations with Douglas DC-3s flying from Tunis-Carthage Airport to Marseille, Ajaccio, Bastia, Algiers, Rome, Sfax, Djerba, and Tripoli. The passenger traffic grew steadily from 1951 when 56,400 passengers were carried, 33,400 of them by Air France.[7] The airport offered a convenient stop-over point for several other French airlines over the years, including Aigle Azur with a stop in Tunis on the Paris-Brazzaville route, and TAI (Intercontinental Air Transport) with a stop in Tunis on its Paris-Saigon route.

In 1997 the airport terminal was expanded to 57,448 m2 (618,365 sq ft); it consists of two floors (departure and arrival) and has a capacity of 4,400,000 passengers per year. In 2005 the terminal was expanded another 5,500 m2 (59,202 sq ft), and now has a capacity of 500,000 more passengers annually. On 23 September 2006 a new terminal opened for charter flights.

Airlines and destinations

Aerial view
Apron view

Passenger

AirlinesDestinations
Afriqiyah Airways Beida, Tripoli
Air Algérie Algiers
Seasonal: Annaba (begins 17 September 2017)[9]
Air France Paris-Charles de Gaulle
Air Malta Seasonal: Malta[10]
Alitalia Milan-Malpensa, Rome-Fiumicino
Buraq Air Tripoli, Misrata
EgyptAir Cairo
Emirates Dubai-International
Eurowings
operated by Germanwings
Cologne/Bonn
Libyan Airlines Beida, Tobruk, Tripoli
Lufthansa Frankfurt
Seasonal: Munich
Mauritania Airlines Nouakchott
Nouvelair Algiers, Nantes, Nice, Toulouse
Seasonal: Copenhagen, Lyon, Stockholm–Arlanda
Qatar Airways Doha
Royal Air Maroc Casablanca
Royal Jordanian Amman-Queen Alia
Saudia Jeddah
Transavia France Lyon, Paris-Orly
TUI fly Belgium Seasonal: Charleroi
Tunisair Abidjan, Algiers, Amsterdam, Bamako, Barcelona, Beirut, Belgrade, Bologna, Bordeaux, Brussels, Cairo, Casablanca, Conakry, Constantine, Dakar, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Istanbul-Atatürk, Jeddah, Lisbon, London-Gatwick, London-Heathrow, Lyon, Madrid, Marseille, Medina, Milan-Malpensa, Montréal–Trudeau, Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Munich, Nantes, Niamey, Nice, Nouakchott, Oran, Ouagadougou, Palermo, Paris-Orly, Rome-Fiumicino, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Venice-Marco Polo, Vienna, Zürich
Seasonal: Prague
Tunisair Express Djerba, Malta, Naples, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Sfax, Tozeur
Turkish Airlines Istanbul-Atatürk
Vueling Seasonal: Barcelona

Cargo

AirlinesDestinations
Air France CargoParis-Charles de Gaulle
ASL Airlines BelgiumLiège, Lyon
Emirates SkyCargoDubai-Al Maktoum
Turkish Airlines CargoIstanbul-Atatürk

Other facilities

The head office of the Tunisian Civil Aviation and Airports Authority (OACA) is on the airport property.[11]

Ground transportation

The airport is served by bus lines and taxis, but not by a railway (the L'Aéroport station on the TGM suburban rail line does not actually serve it, being several miles distant).

Accidents and incidents

See also

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

  1. http://www.investir-en-tunisie.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=34687:2015-12-11-13-35-02&catid=39:eco-finance&Itemid=128
  2. Airport information for DTTA at World Aero Data. Data current as of October 2006.Source: DAFIF.
  3. Airport information for TUN at Great Circle Mapper. Source: DAFIF (effective October 2006).
  4. List of the busiest airports in Africa
  5. Tunis–Carthage International Airport at Office de l'Aviation Civile et des Aeroports (OACA)
  6. Philippe Bonnichon; Pierre Gény; Jean Nemo (2012). Présences françaises outre-mer, XVIe-XXIe siècles. KARTHALA Editions. p. 453. ISBN 978-2-8111-0737-6.
  7. 1 2 Encyclopedie Mensuelle d'Outre-mer staff (1954). Tunisia 54. Negro Universities Press. p. 166.
  8. Maurer, Maurer. Air Force Combat Units of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History, 1983. ISBN 0-89201-092-4.
  9. http://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/270736/air-algerie-s17-international-service-changes-as-of-04jan17/
  10. http://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/272613/airmalta-resumes-tunis-service-from-june-2017/
  11. "Welcome to the OACA." Tunisian Civil Aviation and Airports Authority. Retrieved on 26 January 2011. "GENERAL DIRECTION and SOCIAL HEAD OFFICE International Airport Tunis-Carthage BP 137 et 147- 1080 TUNIS CEDEX – TELEX 13809 – OACA RC 871."

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