Departure
95%
vs 95%
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Diori Hamani International Airport serves Niamey, the capital of Niger, and sits amid a working military airbase that has hosted French, American and Russian forces over the past decade. For the visiting VFR or IFR pilot it offers a single long hard-surfaced runway with an ILS, ATC provided by the regional agency ASECNA, and a location just south-east of the city along the Route Nationale 1.
Diori Hamani International Airport, named after Hamani Diori, the first President of Niger, is the country's principal international gateway, serving as a hub for Niger Airlines and handling a range of West African and intercontinental carriers. The civil airport is collocated with Base Aérienne 101, the Nigerien Air Force's main base, which has at various times also hosted French, American, Italian and Russian military detachments, giving the field an unusually active mixed civil-military character that is worth bearing in mind when planning a visit.
The airport lies about 9 km from central Niamey in the city's south-eastern suburbs, alongside the Route Nationale 1, the principal highway running east from Niamey towards Dosso, Maradi, Zinder and beyond. Air traffic control is provided by ASECNA, which bases one of its five continental air traffic control zones at Niamey; the airport lies at coordinates 13.4817N, 2.1704E at an elevation of 712 feet.
The airport has a single physical runway, 09/27, orientated broadly east-west and measuring 9,797 feet in length with a hard, lit surface. Runway 09 is equipped with an ILS, giving instrument approach capability for that direction; runway 27 is lit but has no ILS listed.
Niamey is served by ASECNA air traffic control on the following frequencies: Niamey ACC on 131.3 MHz, Niamey Info on 565.2 MHz, and Niamey Tower on 119.7 MHz. Runway 09 is supported by an ILS for instrument approaches.
The Route Nationale 1, the major highway linking Niamey with the east of the country, runs directly alongside the airport and is a useful linear feature for orientation on approach. An abandoned railway line, built to connect the airport to Niamey railway station and Dosso but never brought into operational use, also passes close by and can serve as an additional visual reference when inbound from the south-west.
The airport takes its name from Hamani Diori, Niger's first President, and has long combined civil and military roles: the Niger Air Force's Base Aérienne 101 is collocated with the civil terminal. Since 2013 the base has been used by American and French forces, including drone operations in support of intelligence collection over Mali and, from 2014, French MQ-9 Reaper and Mirage 2000D operations under Operation Barkhane; Niamey became France's largest centre of operations in West Africa by 2022. The African School for Meteorology and Civil Aviation, founded in 1963, also operates from the airport complex, training aviation professionals from across Africa. Following the 2023 Nigerien coup d'etat, French forces withdrew from the base in December 2023 and American forces completed their withdrawal in July 2024, with Russian troops moving onto the site from May 2024. The base has since been the target of attacks, including an Islamic State assault in January 2026 and a JNIM attack in June 2026, both repelled by Nigerien security forces.
Diori Hamani International Airport continues to operate as Niger's main international airport, served by carriers including Air Algerie, Air Burkina, Air Cote d'Ivoire, Air France, Air Senegal, ASKY Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, Royal Air Maroc, Sky Mali, Tunisair and Turkish Airlines, alongside Niger Airlines for which it is a hub. The collocated military base remains an active facility, and pilots should be aware of the mixed civil-military environment when operating in the area.
