ALGIERS AIRPORT
Algiers Airport (IATA: ALG, ICAO: DAAG) is called Houari Boumediene Airport (Arabic: مطار هواري بومدين الدولي, French: Aéroport d'Alger Houari Boumediene) and also known as Algiers Airport or Algiers International Airport. It’s an international airport serving Algiers, the capital of Algeria and it is the base hub for Trans European MedEx airline, the mediterranean subsidiary for European Airways Group, VAG.
It is located 16.9 km east southeast of the city. The airport is named after Houari Boumediene, a former president of Algeria. Dar El Beïda, the area at which the airport is located, was known as Maison Blanche (White House), and the airport is called Maison Blanche Airport in much of the literature about the Algerian War of Independence. It was created in 1924 and named Maison Blanche Airport. During World War II, Maison Blanche Airport was a primary objective of the Allied Operation Torch Eastern Task Force on 8 November 1942 and was seized by a combination of United States Army units, British Commandos and elements of a British Infantry Division. Once in Allied hands, the airport was used by the United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command as a major transshipment hub for cargo, transiting aircraft and personnel. It functioned as a stopover en route to Tafarquay Airport, near Oran or to Tunis Airport, Tunisia on the North African Cairo-Dakar transport route. It also flew personnel and cargo to Marseille, Milan, Naples and Palermo, Sicily. The airport zone has an area of 850ha.
It’s the HUB for the Algerian State Company Air Algerie and it’s served by 27 more airlines (2017). Positioned at N3641.7 E00313.0, with an elevation of 82 ft (25 m), it has two runways, each with 11.483ft (3500m) in length. The former International Terminal (Terminal 1) presents a capacity of 6 million passengers per year. It was inaugurated on the 5th July 2006 by the President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The terminal holds 3000 car parking spaces, a taxi stand, a boarding area of 27,000 m² and a surface area of 82.000 m2, 18 passenger gates, 14 with jet bridges and 20 ramp parking places accessible by bus. The Domestic Terminal (Terminal 2), renovated in 2008, has a capacity of 2.5 million passengers per year. Terminal 3 was used, prior to Terminal 2's opening, for operating domestic flights. In 2008, the terminal's use changed to pilgrimage and charter flights.
In 2019, the new international terminal started operations with a planned capacity of 10 million passengers per year, occupying an area of 214.588 m2.
Algiers airport is normally referenced as a non-dangerous airport. Its history holds record of the following security incidents:
§ On the 23rd July 1968, three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacked El Al Flight 426, a Boeing 707 with 48 other people on board and diverted it to the airport. They eventually released all 48 hostages unharmed.
§ On the 20th January 1981, the 52 United States embassy hostages arrived at the airport after they departed Tehran, Iran.
§ On the 26th August 1992, a bomb at the airport killed nine people and injured 128. Several people were arrested in connection with the bombing, including Hossein Abderrahim, a member of the Islamic FIS political party. He was executed in 1993. In 2002, Abdelghani Ait Haddad, sentenced to death in his absence, took refuge in the United Kingdom after residing in France for nine years.
§ On the 24th December 1994, Air France Flight 8969, an Airbus A300 bound for Paris, was seized by four Islamic terrorists before take-off; three passengers were killed before departure. In Marseille, France, a special operations team of the French Gendarmerie stormed the aircraft and killed all four hijackers; 25 passengers were injured.
