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El Arish International Airport lies south of the town of El Arish on Egypt's Mediterranean coast in North Sinai, close to the Gaza Strip and the Rafah border crossing. It offers a single long, lit hard runway and is of interest to simmers mainly for its geopolitical setting and history as a staging point for regional airline and humanitarian operations rather than for any complex procedures.
El Arish International Airport serves the town of El Arish in North Sinai, Egypt, and is government operated. It is notable to simulator pilots chiefly for its location near the Gaza Strip and the Rafah Border Crossing, and for its role as a substitute airport for Palestinian Airlines after the closure of Yasser Arafat International Airport, giving it a distinctive place in the recent aviation history of the region.
The airfield sits south of El Arish on the Mediterranean coast of North Sinai, Egypt, and is one of the closest airports to the Gaza Strip; El Gora Airport is marginally closer but smaller. El Arish International is roughly 45 kilometres from the Rafah Border Crossing.
The airfield has a single physical runway, 16/34, running 9,871 feet on a hard surface and equipped with lighting. There is no ILS.
Pilots should expect to work Approach on 123.725 MHz, Ground on 121.9 MHz, and Tower on 121 MHz, with a further radio frequency published at 579 MHz. No ILS is available at the field.
Palestinian Airlines relocated its operations to El Arish International Airport after the runway at Yasser Arafat International Airport was destroyed by Israeli forces in 2001, and the field subsequently became the main gateway for Palestinian passengers from the Gaza Strip travelling to Saudi Arabia for hajj and umrah. Passenger numbers were modest, with 5,991 recorded in 2011, a 45.4 percent fall on the previous year. Palestinian Airlines flights were grounded between 2005 and 2012, resuming in May 2012 with two weekly services to Amman and planned flights to Jeddah. The airline ceased operations altogether in December 2020, having latterly flown two Fokker 50 aircraft, each over 30 years old, between El Arish, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates. During the Gaza war the airport was used as a staging ground for medical evacuation flights to the United Arab Emirates.
Egyptair currently provides air transport at El Arish, operating passenger services to Cairo and a cargo route to Ostend flown with an Airbus A330 freighter. The airport site covers some 160 hectares and its terminal has a stated capacity of 200 passengers per hour, with apron space for four aircraft.
