Departure
98%
vs 95% ▲ 3
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Alula Aba Nega Airport is Mekelle's public airfield in Ethiopia's Tigray Region, lying some 10 km southeast of the city at a lofty elevation of 7,379 feet. Operated by the Ethiopian Airports Enterprise, it offers a single long, ILS-equipped hard runway that makes it a notable high-altitude destination for visiting sim pilots. It was built in the late 1990s to replace an older, unpaved field closer to the city.
Alula Aba Nega Airport, also known as Mekelle Airport, is the public aerodrome serving Mekelle, capital of Ethiopia's Tigray Region. It is operated by the Ethiopian Airports Enterprise and is named after Ras Alula, the nineteenth-century Ethiopian military commander also known as Alula Aba Nega. For the sim pilot the field is notable chiefly for its high field elevation of 7,379 feet and its single very long runway with an ILS approach, giving a realistic taste of high-altitude African airline operations.
The airport sits in northern Ethiopia, approximately 10 km southeast of Mekelle city, within the Tigray Region. It was built in the late 1990s specifically to replace an older airfield located about 7 km from the city.
The airport has a single physical runway, 11/29, oriented northwest-southeast. It is a hard-surfaced, lit runway of roughly 10,800 feet in length in each direction (10,791 ft on runway 11 and 10,808 ft on runway 29), and it is equipped with an ILS. Field elevation is 7,379 feet.
Ground movements are handled on 121.9 MHz and the tower on 118.8 MHz. The field is equipped with an ILS approach associated with runway 29.
The current airport was constructed in the late 1990s to replace an older airfield situated about 7 km from Mekelle. It was named after Ras Alula, a nineteenth-century Ethiopian military leader known for his campaigns against Italian, Ottoman Turkish and Egyptian forces and for his role at the Battle of Adwa. When it first opened, the airport had a single unpaved runway some 3,000 metres (9,843 ft) long, handling a modest schedule of flights to Addis Ababa, Shire and Humera. The field has seen at least two recorded accidents: a Douglas DC-3 of Ethiopian Airlines was damaged beyond repair in a take-off accident on 22 August 1982, and on 18 January 2024 an Ethiopian Airlines Dash-8 suffered a landing gear collapse and propeller strike during a runway excursion.
Alula Aba Nega Airport continues to handle scheduled airline service, with Ethiopian Airlines operating flights to Addis Ababa.
