Tunis–Carthage International Airport

Tunis–Carthage International Airport, (Template:Langx, Template:Langx, Template:Airport codes) is the international airport of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia.<ref>Tunis–Carthage International Airport Template:Webarchive at Office de l'Aviation Civile et des Aeroports (OACA) Template:Webarchive</ref> 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

File:El aouina 1952.jpg

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.<ref name="BonnichonGény2012">Template:Cite book</ref> The Tunis Airfield opened in 1938, serving around 5,800 passengers annually on the Paris-Tunis route.<ref name="Staff1954">Template:Cite book</ref>

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:<ref>Maurer, Maurer. Air Force Combat Units of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History, 1983. Template:ISBN.</ref>

• 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.Template: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.Template: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.<ref name="Staff1954" /> 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.<ref name="Staff1954" />

In 1997, the airport terminal was expanded to Template:Convert; it consists of two floors (departure and arrival) and has a capacity of 4,400,000 passengers per year.Template:Citation needed In 2005, the terminal was expanded another Template:Convert, and now has a capacity of 500,000 more passengers annually. On 23 September 2006 a new terminal opened for charter flights.Template:Citation needed Syphax Airlines commenced a direct flight to Montreal in April 2014.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

File:Tunis-Carthage International Airport (Terminal 2).jpg

Terminal 2 exterior

Airlines and destinations

File:Tunis Carthage Airport.jpg

Tarmac view

File:Waiting room at Tunis-Carthage.JPG

Departure gate area

File:Tunis-Carthage International Airport - panoramio (1).jpg

Terminal from the outside

Other facilities

The head office of the Tunisian Civil Aviation and Airports Authority (OACA) is on the airport property.<ref>"Welcome to the OACA Template:Webarchive." 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."</ref>

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.<ref name="asn">Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

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

External links

• Template:Commons category-inline
• Tunisian Civil Aviation and Airports Authority (OACA)
• Template:ASN
• Template:SkyVector
• Template:NWS-current