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
Website
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 (2024)
Passengers 7,249,701[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]} Syphax Airlines commenced a direct flight to Montreal in April 2014.^[9]

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[10]
Air Europa	Seasonal: Madrid
Air France	Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Paris−Orly Seasonal: Marseille,[11] Nice[12]
Berniq Airways	Benghazi[13]
Edelweiss Air	Seasonal: Zurich[14]
Egyptair	Cairo
Emirates	Dubai–International
Etihad Airways	Abu Dhabi (begins 1 November 2025)[15][16]
Eurowings	Cologne/Bonn Seasonal: Berlin,[17] Stuttgart[18]
ITA Airways[19]	Rome–Fiumicino
Libyan Airlines	Bayda, Benghazi, Tobruk, Tripoli–Mitiga
Libyan Wings	Misrata, Tripoli–Mitiga
Lufthansa	Frankfurt, Munich
Mauritania Airlines	Nouakchott
Nouvelair[20]	Basel/Mulhouse,[21] Berlin, Bologna,[22] Bordeaux, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt,[23] Geneva, Istanbul, Lille, London–Gatwick, Lyon, Marseille, Milan–Malpensa, Munich,[24] Nantes, Nice, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Rabat, Strasbourg, Toulouse Seasonal: Algiers, Barcelona, Casablanca, Copenhagen,[25] Hamburg, Jeddah, Madrid, Medina, Oran,[26] Stockholm–Arlanda[27]
Qatar Airways	Doha
Royal Air Maroc	Casablanca
Royal Jordanian	Amman–Queen Alia
Saudia	Jeddah
Transavia	Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes, Paris–Orly Seasonal: Nice[28]
TUI fly Belgium	Brussels[29]
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 Seasonal: Lisbon,[30] Medina, Zürich[31] Seasonal charter: Skopje,[32] Tirana[32]
Tunisair Express	Constantine, Djerba, Malta, Naples, Palermo, Rome–Fiumicino, Sfax, Tozeur
Turkish Airlines	Istanbul
Vueling	Seasonal: Barcelona

Cargo

Airlines	Destinations
Emirates SkyCargo[33]	Dubai–Al Maktoum
Express Air Cargo[34][35]	Bengaluru, Casablanca, Cologne/Bonn, Hong Kong, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Sharjah
Turkish Cargo[36]	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.^[37]

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.^[38]

See also

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