Sanaa International Airport مطار صنعاء الدولي | |||||||||||
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Summary | |||||||||||
Airport type | Public/Military | ||||||||||
Owner | Yemeni Government | ||||||||||
Serves | Sanaa | ||||||||||
Location | Sanaa | ||||||||||
Opened | 1964 | ||||||||||
Hub for | Yemenia | ||||||||||
Elevation AMSL | 7,216 ft / 2,199 m | ||||||||||
Coordinates | 15°28′35″N044°13′11″E / 15.47639°N 44.21972°E | ||||||||||
Map | |||||||||||
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Runways | |||||||||||
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Sanaa International Airport( IATA : SAH, ICAO : OYSN) is the primary international airport of Yemen located in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen. It serves Sanaa City, as well as the entire population of the northern provinces of Yemen. Initially, a small passenger terminal was built in the 1970s. The runway is shared with the large Al-Dailami Air Base.
The airport has one 3,200-meter-long runway, an apron with 27 parking spaces, and a passenger terminal. [1]
In 2007, the airport handled about 1.7 million passengers, representing 80% of all air passengers in Yemen and 87% of all international passengers. [1] During that year, there were 38 flights per day on average. [1]
Due to the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen, in March 2015 a no-fly zone was imposed over the entire country, and civilian flights ceased operation. [2] [3] The only flights operating from then on were flights by foreign countries to evacuate their nationals. [4] The militaries of India and Pakistan evacuated their citizens from Yemen as the war began.
On 29 April 2015, the airport was the target of severe bombardment from the Royal Saudi Air Force. The sole runway and the passenger terminal building was severely damaged and was deemed unusable for the foreseeable future. [5] On 9 August 2016, the airport was closed down once again after resumption of services by Yemenia due to closure of airspace by the Saudi-led coalition.
On 6 November 2017, in response to a Houthi missile landing in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi authorities closed the airport along with all other routes into Yemen. [6] On 14 November of that year, the Saudi Air Force bombed the airport, inflicting damage upon it. [7] On 23 November 2017, the authorities allowed the airport to reopen for aid flights, along with the port of Hodeidah. [8] On 25 November, four planes carrying humanitarian aid landed in Sanaa, the first such planes to land since the total blockade had been imposed. [6]
On 3 February 2020, a United Nations plane carrying seven seriously ill Yemenis took off on a mercy flight to Jordan. [9] In December 2021, the airport was targeted by Saudi Arabian airstrikes. [10] Civilians were reportedly evacuated before the airstrikes were launched but the airport was heavily damaged. [11]
On 16 May 2022, commercial flights from the airport resumed after six years. The first Yemenia flight carried 151 passengers to the Jordanian capital Amman. [12] On 28 July 2024, it was announced that Yemenia would resume flights from Sanaa International Airport to Egypt, [a] and India in the following week. [13] However, that was cancelled.
On 25 May 2025, for the first time since the start of the civil war the first plane carrying Yemeni pilgrims departed directly from Sana’a International Airport en route to the city of Jeddah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, marking the beginning of Hajji pilgrimage season. Khaled Al-Shaif, Director of Sana’a International Airport, stated in a press release that approximately 2,000 pilgrims will be transported directly from the airport to the holy sites. [14]
On 26 December 2024, the Israeli Air Force conducted airstrikes on the airport in response to Houthi attacks targeting population centers in Israel. [15]
On 6 May 2025, following a warning issued by the Israel Defense Forces [16] to all residents near the airport, [17] [18] Sanaa International Airport, along with 10 other sites in the country, [19] was destroyed along with several aircraft by an Israeli airstrike. [20] [21] [22] Three aircraft belonging to Yemenia were also reported to have been destroyed on the ground. [23]
This attack came less than 24 hours after Israeli forces bombed Hodeidah International Airport [24] following Houthi strikes on the Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv. [25] Reacting to the strikes on Sanaa Airport, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated "we attacked in the past, we will attack in the future." [26] According to the Airport director, Khaled al-Shaief, "around $500 million in losses were caused by the Israeli aggression" on the airport. [27] The airport received its first flight from Queen Alia International Airport 11 days after the airstrikes. [28] On 28 May, another Israeli airstrike destroyed a Yemenia aircraft that had been chartered to take Hajj pilgrims to Mecca before it could be boarded. [29] The aircraft was the last civilian aircraft that Yemenia Airways was operating from the airport. [30]
Airlines | Destinations |
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Yemenia | Amman–Queen Alia (suspended) [31] |