Tunis–Carthage International Airport

Tunis–Carthage International 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.

Tunis–Carthage International Airport Aéroport international de Tunis-Carthage مطار تونس قرطاج الدولي
IATA: TUN ICAO: DTTA
Summary
Airport type	Public/Military
Operator	Tunisian Civil Aviation & Airports Authority
Serves	Tunis
Location	Tunis, Tunisia
Hub for	Tunisair Tunisair Express Nouvelair
Elevation AMSL	22 ft / 7 m
Coordinates	36°51′04″N 010°13′38″E / 36.85111°N 10.22722°E / 36.85111; 10.22722
Website	[1]
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 (2023)
Passengers 6,649,912^[1]
Source: DAFIF^[2]^[3]^[4]

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]

• HQ, 87th Fighter Group, 22 November – 14 December 1943
• 3d Reconnaissance Group, 13 June – 8 December 1943, Lockheed F-4/F-5 Lightning
• 5th Reconnaissance Group, 8 September – 8 December 1943, Lockheed F-4/F-5 Lightning

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

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, Libya. 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. Among foreign companies, the TWA was present, whose lines Rome-New York and Rome-Bombay made stop in Tunis, and the LAI (Italian company) which made the connection Rome-Palermo-Tunis.^[7]

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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

 

Terminal 2 exterior

Airlines and destinations

 

Tarmac view

 

Departure gate area

 

Terminal from the outside

Passenger

Airlines	Destinations
Aegean Airlines	Athens
Afriqiyah Airways	Bayda, Benghazi, Tripoli–Mitiga
Air Algérie	Algiers
Air Arabia	Casablanca^[9]
Air Europa	Seasonal: Madrid
Air France	Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Paris−Orly Seasonal: Marseille,^[10] Nice^[11]
Egyptair	Cairo
Emirates	Dubai–International
Eurowings	Cologne/Bonn Seasonal: Berlin (begins 15 July 2024),^[12] Hamburg,^[13] Stuttgart^[14]
ITA Airways^[15]	Rome–Fiumicino
Libyan Airlines	Bayda, Benghazi, Tobruk, Tripoli–Mitiga
Libyan Wings	Misrata, Tripoli–Mitiga
Lufthansa	Frankfurt, Munich
Luxair	Seasonal: Luxembourg^[16]
Mauritania Airlines	Nouakchott
Nouvelair^[17]	Basel/Mulhouse,^[18] Berlin, Bologna,^[19] Bordeaux, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt,^[20] Geneva, Istanbul, Lille, London–Gatwick, Lyon, Marseille, Milan–Malpensa, Munich,^[21] Nantes, Nice, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Strasbourg, Toulouse Seasonal: Algiers, Barcelona (begins 16 May 2024),^[citation needed] Casablanca (begins 2 April 2024),^[citation needed] Copenhagen,^[22] Hamburg, Jeddah, Madrid (begins 1 April 2024),^[citation needed] Medina, Stockholm–Arlanda^[23]
Qatar Airways	Doha
Royal Air Maroc	Casablanca
Royal Jordanian	Amman–Queen Alia
Saudia	Jeddah
Transavia	Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes, Paris–Orly Seasonal: Nice^[24]
TUI fly Belgium	Brussels^[25]
Tunisair	Abidjan, Algiers, Bamako, Barcelona, Bologna, Bordeaux, Brussels, Cairo, Casablanca, Conakry, Constantine, Dakar–Diass, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Istanbul, Jeddah, London–Gatwick, London–Heathrow, Lyon, Madrid, Marseille, Milan–Malpensa, Montréal–Trudeau, Munich, Niamey, Nice, Nouakchott, Oran, Ouagadougou, Palermo, Paris–Orly, Rome–Fiumicino, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Tripoli–Mitiga, Venice, Vienna, Zürich^[26] Seasonal: Lisbon (resumes 6 May 2024),^[27] Medina Seasonal charter: Skopje (begins 24 June 2024),^[28] Tirana (begins 20 June 2024)^[28]
Tunisair Express	Constantine, Djerba, Malta, Naples, Palermo, Rome–Fiumicino, Sfax, Tozeur
Turkish Airlines	Istanbul
Vueling	Seasonal: Barcelona

Cargo

Airlines	Destinations
Emirates SkyCargo^[29]	Dubai–Al Maktoum
Express Air Cargo^[30]^[31]	Bangalore, Casablanca, Cologne/Bonn, Hong Kong, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Sharjah
Turkish Cargo^[32]	Istanbul

Statistics

Annual passenger traffic at TUN airport. See Wikidata query.

Other facilities

The head office of the Tunisian Civil Aviation and Airports Authority (OACA) is on the airport property.^[33]

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 kilometers distant).

Accidents and incidents

On 7 May 2002, EgyptAir Flight 843, a Boeing 737 from Cairo crashed 4 miles from Tunis–Carthage International Airport. Of the 62 people on board, 14 were killed.^[34]

See also

• List of the busiest airports in Africa by passenger traffic
• List of airports in Tunisia

References

  This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

1. "Tunis-Carthage au Top 10 des aéroports africains les plus visités". from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
2. . World Aero Data. Archived from the original on 5 March 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) 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 17 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine at Office de l'Aviation Civile et des Aeroports (OACA) 25 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine
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. from the original on 24 January 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
7. Encyclopedie Mensuelle d'Outre-mer staff (1954). Tunisia 54. Negro Universities Press. p. 166. ISBN 9780837124421. from the original on 24 January 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
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. Liu, Jim (14 January 2019). "Air Arabia Maroc schedules new routes in S19". Routesonline. from the original on 7 April 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
10. "Air France renforce ses vols avec la Tunisie". Visas Voyages Algérie. 6 June 2022. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
11. "Air France annonce 8 nouvelles destinations au départ de Nice cet été". 9 April 2021.
12. "Eurowings Adds Berlin - Tunis in 3Q24". AeroRoutes. 31 January 2024. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
13. "Eurowings adds Hamburg - Tunis" (in German). 3 March 2023.
14. "Eurowings flies to more destinations in summer 2022 than ever before".
15. itaspa.com - Network retrieved 1 November 2021
16. Liu, Jim. "Luxair resumes Tunisia service in 1H21". Routesonline. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
17. "Cheap flights with Nouvelair". nouvelair.com. from the original on 21 October 2018. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
18. https://www.nouvelair.com/en/actualites/nouvelair-inaugure-sa-nouvelle-ligne-aerienne-tunis-%E2%80%93-bale.
19. https://www.nouvelair.com/en/actualites/nouvelair-lance-une-nouvelle-ligne-reliant-tunis-a-bologne.
20. "NOUVELAIR TUNISIE ADDS TUNIS – FRANKFURT SERVICE FROM SEP 2023".
21. "Nouvelair - Network".
22. https://www.nouvelair.com/en/actualites/nouvelair-lance-sa-nouvelle-ligne--tunis-%E2%80%93-copenhague
23. "NOUVELAIR TUNISIE ADDS STOCKHOLM FLIGHT FROM JUNE 2023". Aeroroutes. 17 April 2023. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
24. Transavia
25. "TUIfly Belgium 2023 North Africa Network Additions".
26. "TUNISAIR RESUMES ZURICH SERVICE IN NS24".
27. "Tunisair Resumes Lisbon Service from May 2024".
28. "Tunisar Adds Skopje / Tirana Charters in NS24".
29. eskycargo.emirates.com - Schedules retrieved 6 November 2021
30. "Our fleet - Global Air Network". from the original on 9 May 2018. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
31. "Express Air Cargo to operate cargo service to Hong Kong, Sharjah and Bangalore every Saturday and Tuesday from Tunis". Express Air Cargo. 23 February 2023. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
32. turkishcargo.com - Flight Schedule retrieved 6 November 2021
33. "Welcome to the OACA 25 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine." 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."
34. Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 737-566 SU-GBI Tunis-Carthage Airport (TUN)". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 17 April 2021.

External links

•   Media related to Tunis-Carthage International Airport at Wikimedia Commons
• Accident history for TUN at Aviation Safety Network
• Aeronautical chart and airport information for DTTA at SkyVector
• Current weather for DTTA at NOAA/NWS