Diori Hamani International Airport

Diori Hamani International Airport (IATA: NIM, ICAO: DRRN) is an airport in Niamey, the capital of Niger.[3] It is located 9 km (5.6 mi) from Niamey in the south eastern suburbs of the city, along the Route Nationale 1, the major highway linking Niamey with the east of the nation. The airport complex also includes the major base for the Armed Forces of Niger's "Armee d'Air".

Diori Hamani International Airport
Summary
Airport typeMilitary/Public
OwnerTransports de Niamey
OperatorASECNA
ServesNiamey, Niger
LocationNiamey, Niger
Hub for
Elevation AMSL732 ft / 223 m
Coordinates13°28′54″N 002°10′13″E
Map
NIM
Location within Niger
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
09R/27L 3,000 9,843 Bitumen
09L/27R 3,000 9,843 Laterite
Statistics (2013)
Passengers165,000
Sources: Agence pour la Sécurité de la Navigation aérienne en Afrique et à Madagascar[1][2]

Overview
Hangar

Traffic

In 2004, the airport served 97,814 passengers. The air traffic control for NIM is operated by the ASECNA, which bases one of its five air traffic zones for the continent at Niamey.[4] The airport is named after Hamani Diori, the first President of Niger.

EAMAC

ASECNA operates the "African School for Meteorology and Civil Aviation/Ecole Africaine de la Météorologie et de l'Aviation Civile" at the Niamey airport complex, as well as in the Plateau quarter of Niamey city centre. Founded in 1963, EAMAC trains civil aviation professionals and aviation meteorologists from across Africa.[5][6]

Base Aérienne 101

The Niger Air Force maintains Base Aérienne 101, collocated with Diori Hamani International Airport, and it is used by both the American and French armed forces for counter-terrorism operations.[7][8][9][10]

In 2013, U.S. African Command spokesman Benjamin Benson confirmed that U.S. air operations conducted from Base Aérienne 101 at Diori Hamani International Airport were providing "support for intelligence collection with French forces conducting operations in Mali and with other partners in the region."[11] In July 2013, The New York Times reported that the deployment had expanded from one Predator UAV to daily flights by a detachment of two larger MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft, supported by 120 U.S. Air Force personnel.[12] The MQ-9 Reapers are scheduled to be relocated to Niger Air Base 201.[13]

Around 2013, two Ku band arrays were constructed at the airport to allow for communication with EADS Harfang UAVs.[14] The French Air and Space Force Escadron de Drones 1/33 Belfort has operated three MQ-9 Reapers out of the base since January 2014 in support of Operation Barkhane.[9] France has also deployed Dassault Mirage 2000D aircraft from the French Air Forces detachment (DETAIR) to the base.[15][10]

The Nigerien Air Force operates two Cessna-208 Caravans equipped for ISTAR operations at the airport.[16][17]

A French Operational Transport Group is based at the airbase which currently controls Lockheed C-130J Hercules aircraft instead of the previous Transall C-160's.[18]

Airlines and destinations
AirlinesDestinations
Air Algérie Algiers
Air Burkina Ouagadougou
Air Cote d'Ivoire Abidjan
Air FranceParis–Charles de Gaulle
Air Senegal Abuja,[19] Dakar–Diass
ASKY Airlines Lomé, Ouagadougou
Ethiopian Airlines Addis Ababa, Ouagadougou[20]
Niger Airlines Agadez, Diffa, Maradi, Zinder
Royal Air Maroc Casablanca
Tchadia Airlines N'Djamena[21]
Tunisair Abidjan, Tunis
Turkish Airlines Bamako, Istanbul[22]

See also

References
  1. Aeronautical chart
  2. List of the busiest airports in Africa
  3. "Attributions des départements de l'ANAC." Agence nationale de l'aviation civile du Niger. Retrieved on 3 June 2013.
  4. Visites du ministre des Transports et de l'Aviation Civile à l'aéroport international Diori Hamani de Niamey et au CNUT: s'enquérir des conditions de travail des agents Archived 27 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Seini Seydou Zakaria, le Sahel (Niamey) 18 June 2009
  5. L'EAMAC. asecna.aero Accessed 18 June 2009
  6. L'EAMAC, c'est la Météorologie, l'Aviation Civile, l'Electronique et l'Informatique au service de la Sécurité de la Navigation Aérienne. Official website. Accessed 18 June 2009
  7. Trevithick, Joseph (20 May 2014). "Niger is the New Hub for American Ops in North, West Africa". Offiziere. The American site is near Diori Hamani International Airport and the collocated Nigerien Air Force’s Base Aérienne 101.
  8. Beckhusen, Robert (17 February 2014). "New Satellite Images Show Expanded Drone Base in Africa". Medium. The base is located next to the Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, Niger’s capital. It isn’t a secret, but both Washington and Paris are tight-lipped about its operations.
  9. Lert, Frédéric (10 January 2017). "France receives two more Reapers, deploys them to Niger". Jane's Information Group.
  10. "Niger: Hollande visite la base des drones français" (in French). Radio France Internationale. 19 July 2014. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
  11. Nick Turse, The U.S. Military's Pivot to Africa, The Nation, 5 September 2013.
  12. "Drones in Niger Reflect New U.S. Tack on Terrorism". The New York Times. 11 July 2013. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  13. Seligman, Lara (4 September 2018). "Shadowy U.S. Drone War in Africa Set to Expand". Foreign Policy. The relocation of the MQ-9 Reapers from Air Base 101 to the new facilities at Agadez has been planned since 2014.
  14. "Imagery of the Week: Drone Aprons at Niamey". Open Source IMINT. 9 February 2014. Archived from the original on 10 May 2015. The latest imagery from DigitalGlobe from 10OCT13 shows the two drone aprons and their support areas at the airport including their associated ku-band arrays. Note the French apron has two arrays for the Harfang as the UAV requires a low data rate link for the ground control station and a high data rate link for collected data (e.g. video, photos).
  15. "3 French Mirage jet fighters deployed in Jordan". Times of Israel. Agence-France Presse. 30 November 2014. Pilots from the French Air Forces detachment (DETAIR) are pictured next to a Mirage 2000D fighter jet at the Air Base 101, on November 23, 2014 in Niamey.
  16. Biggers, Chris (3 January 2016). "Imagery Confirms Niger's New Cessna 208 Caravan". bellingcat. The latest commercial satellite imagery acquired by DigitalGlobe confirms the arrival of two Cessna-208 Caravan to Nigerien Air Force’s Base Aérienne 101 in Niamey [...] The U.S. Embassy in Niger notes the aircraft are equipped for the Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance mission.
  17. "US Presents Niger with Cessnas". United States Department of State. 21 October 2015. Archived from the original on 8 February 2016. The ceremony marks the culmination of 12 months of planning, training and execution of two projects: The transfer of two Cessna C-208 Caravans with Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) capability to the Nigerien Air Force; and the transfer of 40 military vehicles (Land Cruisers, ambulances, and cargo trucks), 250 sets of uniforms and personal protective equipment, radios and associated spare parts to the 24th Battalion Inter-armée (BIA) of Dirkou.
  18. AirForces Monthly. Stamford, Lincolnshire, England: Key Publishing Ltd. September 2020. p. 12.
  19. Liu, Jim (17 October 2019). "Addendum: Air Senegal continues Africa network expansion in W19". routesonline.com.
  20. Liu, Jim (23 August 2017). "Ethiopian consolidates Niamey / Ouagadougou service from Oct 2017". UBM (UK) Ltd.
  21. "Tchadia Airlines outlines planned network from Oct 2018". routesonline.com. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  22. "Istanbul New Airport Transition Delayed Until April 5, 2019 (At The Earliest)".

Media related to Diori Hamani International Airport at Wikimedia Commons

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.