Departure
95%
vs 95% ▼ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Hassan I Airport (ICAO GMML) serves Laayoune, the largest city in Western Sahara, and is named after King Hassan I of Morocco. It is a public/military field with two long paved runways and an ILS approach, handling scheduled and charter services from the Moroccan mainland and the Canary Islands.
Hassan I Airport is the principal airfield serving Laayoune, the largest city in Western Sahara, and takes its name from Hassan I of Morocco. It is a public/military aerodrome operated by the Moroccan state company Airports of Morocco, and for a sim pilot it offers an interesting long-haul desert destination with a substantial ILS-equipped runway and a mix of civil and military traffic reflecting the territory's particular political status.
The airfield lies in Western Sahara, a territory whose political status is disputed; as a result the airport appears in the Moroccan AIP under the code GMML and separately in the Spanish AIP under the code GSAI. It sits at coordinates 27.1517N, 13.2192W at an elevation of 220 feet, serving the city of Laayoune.
Hassan I Airport has two physical runways. Runway 02/20 is 8870 feet long with a hard surface, is lit, and has an ILS approach available on runway 02. Runway 04/22 is 8202 feet long, also hard-surfaced and lit, but without an ILS.
Laayoune APP provides an approach service on 127.5 MHz, and Laayoune TWR provides a tower service on 131.1 MHz. The field is equipped with an ILS approach for runway 02.
The airport is named after King Hassan I of Morocco and is operated by the Moroccan state-owned company Airports of Morocco. Because of the unresolved political status of Western Sahara, the field is listed under two different codes: GMML in the Moroccan AIP and GSAI in the Spanish AIP. On 4 December 1976 a Royal Moroccan Air Force Lockheed C-130H Hercules was reportedly shot down by rebels shortly after departing from the airport; it is not known whether there were any fatalities.
The airport handles regular scheduled and charter flights, with Royal Air Maroc operating domestic and regional services to destinations including Agadir, Casablanca, Dakhla, Marrakesh and Rabat, as well as international links to Gran Canaria, and Binter Canarias also serving Gran Canaria. It continues to function as a mixed public and military aerodrome.
