Tripoli International Airport, مطار طرابلس العالمي)

Tripoli International Airport (IATA: TIP, ICAO: HLLT) (Arabic: مطار طرابلس العالمي) serves Tripoli, Libya. It is operated by the Civil Aviation and Meteorology Bureau of Libya and is the nation's largest airport. Located in the town of Ben Ghashir 34 km south of the city centre, Tripoli International is a hub for Libyan Airlines. The airport is also a hub for Afriqiyah Airways and Buraq Air.

With the closure of the National Terminal as part of the construction of the new Airport, all flights, International and Domestic, leave Tripoli International Airport from the main International Passenger Terminal. The terminal capacity is 3 million passengers a year. The airport handled 2.1 million passengers in 2007, and over 3 million passengers in 2008. Two new terminals will be built within the next several years which will bring the total capacity of the airport to 20 million - the first new terminal is due to open by March 2011.

Libyan Airlines operates the most weekly departures from the airport at 98; it is followed by Afriqiyah Airways (83 flights), Buraq Air (42 flights), EgyptAir (14 flights), Alitalia (14 flights) and British Airways (14 flights). Transport to and from Tripoli city center usually involves taking a taxi or shared taxi. Tour operators offer coaches to and from the airport connecting it with numerous hotels in the city centre.

History

During the Second World War the airfield was used by the British Royal Air Force and was named RAF Castel Benito later changing to RAF Idris in 1952. In the 1950s and 1960s the airport was named Tripoli Idris International Airport. The airport was renovated for national and international air travel in September 1978. The existing international terminal was designed and built from a masterplan developed by Alexander Gibb.

Facilities

The entrance to the main international terminal.

There is one main passenger terminal in Tripoli International Airport that serves international and domestic departures and arrivals. Check in and arrival facilities for domestic flights are in the same building as the international terminal but in a different area. The terminal hall is a five story building with an area of 33,000 square meters, and is capable of handling 3 million passengers annually. Check-in facilities are all located on the ground floor. The departure gates are located on the floor above as is the duty free section. Beside this is a prayer room and a first class lounge which serves business class and above on almost all airlines operating from the airport. The airport operates 24 hours a day. There is no overnight accommodation in the airport but there are plans to build an airport hotel to serve transit flyers. A restaurant can be found on the fourth floor of the international terminal.

Cargo handling facilities at Tripoli International include cranes, heavy fork lifts, roller pallet lifts and conveyor belts. There is twenty four hour fire protection at the airport with 112 trained personnel working at the fire station.

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Accidents and incidents

On 12 May 2010, Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771, an Airbus A330-200 crashed on approach to the airport on a flight from OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa. 103 of 104 people on board were killed.

Future plans

Airport expansion

A Libyan Airlines jet taxis in the international terminal

In September 2007, the Libyan government announced a project to upgrade and expand Tripoli International. The eventual total cost of the project, contracted to a joint venture between Brazil's Odebrecht, TAF Construction of Turkey, Consolidated Contractors Company of Lebanon and Vinci Construction of France, is LD2.54 billion ($2.1 billion). The project is to construct two new terminals at the airport (an East Terminal and a West Terminal) on either side of the existing International Terminal. Each of the new terminals will be 162,000 square-meters in size, and collectively they will have a capacity of 20 million passengers and a parking lot for 4,400 vehicles. French company Aéroports de Paris designed the terminals, which are expected to serve 100 airplanes simultaneously. Work started in October 2007 on the first new terminal. The initial capacity will be 6 million passengers when the first module comes into operation.

Preparation is also underway for the second new terminal, which will eventually bring the total capacity to 20 million passengers; the completed airport is expected to strengthen Libya's position as an African aviation hub. Although the government identified Tripoli airport as a ‘fast track’ project in 2007, leading to construction work starting before the design was fully developed, the project will not be finished until at least March 2011. The cost of the project has also been rising, leading to an intense round of renegotiations.

Airlines and destinations

Airlines Destinations

Afriqiyah Airways Abidjan, Accra, Amsterdam, Bamako, Bangui, Beijing-Capital, Benghazi, Brussels, Cairo, Cotonou, Dhaka, Dakar, Douala, Dubai, Düsseldorf, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Khartoum, Kinshasa, Lagos, Lomé, London-Gatwick, Lyon, Milan-Malpensa, N'Djamena, Nouakchott, Niamey, Ouagadougou, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Rome-Fiumicino

Air Algérie Algiers 

Air France Paris-Charles de Gaulle 

Air Malta Malta

Alajnihah Airways Benghazi

Alitalia Rome-Fiumicino 

Austrian Airlines Vienna 

BMI London-Heathrow 

British Airways London-Heathrow 

Bulgaria Air Sofia 

Buraq Air Aleppo, Alexandria-El Nouhza, Benghazi, Cairo, Istanbul-Atatürk, Beida, Rabat, Sabha, Sarajevo, Tunis

EgyptAir Cairo

Emirates Dubai [Suspended until further notice due to crisis in Libya]

Jat Airways Belgrade, Malta

KLM Amsterdam 

Libyan Airlines Alexandria-El Nouhza, Algiers, Amman-Queen Alia, Ankara, Athens, Beida, Benghazi, Cairo, Casablanca, Damascus, Dubai, Ghadames, Ghat, Istanbul-Atatürk, Jeddah, Kiev-Borispyl, London-Heathrow, Madrid, Malta, Manchester, Milan-Malpensa, Rome-Fiumicino, Sabha, Sirte, Tobruk, Tunis

Lufthansa Frankfurt 

Nayzak Air Transport Benghazi, Beida, Sabha, Tunis

Qatar Airways Casablanca, Doha 

Royal Air Maroc Casablanca

Royal Jordanian Amman-Queen Alia

Sevenair Djerba, Sfax, Tunis

Spanair Barcelona 

Syrian Air Damascus

Tunisair Tunis

Turkish Airlines Istanbul-Atatürk

Charter

Airlines Destinations

Air Libya Benghazi, Tobruk

Air One Nine Benghazi, Sabha

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(source:wikipedia)