Transform Your Flight Sim Experience
with In-Depth Tracking & Analysis
Track every flight, analyse your performance,
and master your flying skills with My FS Flights
Get 10 flights free every month!
Tracked and analysed flights over miles
Ain Arnat Airport, also known as Sétif International Airport, serves the city of Sétif in Algeria's High Plateaus region and doubles as a civil and military aerodrome. Sitting at over 3,300 feet elevation, it offers a single long hard-surfaced runway equipped with an ILS on one approach, making it a notable high-altitude destination for simulator pilots exploring eastern Algeria.
Ain Arnat Airport, known locally as Sétif International Airport, lies just outside the city of Sétif in the High Plateaus of eastern Algeria. It is operated by EGSA-Constantine and functions as a joint civil-military facility, hosting scheduled airline services alongside Algerian Air Force units. For the simulator pilot, its high field elevation, single long runway with an ILS approach, and mixed civil-military character make it an interesting and slightly unusual stop in North African airspace.
The airport sits at Sétif, in the Sétif Province of Algeria, at coordinates 36.1786 N, 5.33 E, close to the town of Ain Arnat from which it takes its name. It lies within Algerian airspace serving the wilayas of Sétif and Bordj-Bou-Arreridj in the region historically referred to as southern Kabylia. At an elevation of 3,323 feet, it is a high-altitude field, which pilots should factor into performance planning.
The airport has a single physical runway, 09/27, of hard surface construction and lit. The runway measures 7,830 feet from the threshold of 09 and 6,175 feet from the threshold of 27, with an ILS serving the approach to runway 27.
An ILS is available for the approach to runway 27. No specific radio callsign or communication frequencies for the field are published in available aeronautical data.
The airfield traces its origins to 1919, when Algeria was under French rule, and it became home to the 3rd African Aviation Group of the 36th African Aviation Regiment, with the 544 and 549 squadrons based there. The site was later designated Air Base 144 Sétif-Aïn Arnat, with the 3rd Artillery Aviation Group installing aircraft on 1 October 1947, followed by Helicopter Group No. 2 on 29 April 1955, and a helicopter base, No. 101, established on 2 August 1959. The military base was dissolved in 1962 at Algerian independence, after which the airport was named
Today the airport is managed by EGSA-Constantine and operates as a joint civil-military airfield. It hosts the Algerian Air Force's 9th Training Helicopter Regiment, an infantry training centre, and the 4th Commando Parachute Regiment, alongside scheduled civil airline services. Between 2005 and 2007 the terminal was substantially expanded, and further modernisation between 2019 and 2021 doubled passenger handling capacity. The runway and associated taxiway were rebuilt in 2016, during which the airport was closed for ten months. No simulator-specific scenery availability is noted in available sources.
