Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Mitiga International Airport lies on the eastern fringe of Tripoli, Libya, and has served since 2018 as the country's principal gateway following the closure of Tripoli International Airport. A joint civil and military field with a single very long runway, it occupies a site with an unusually deep aviation history stretching back to the Italian colonial era.
Mitiga is a joint public and military airport serving Tripoli, Libya, and since 2018 has been the city's sole international airport after Tripoli International Airport was severely damaged in the second Libyan civil war and closed. It sits about 8 kilometres east of the Tripoli city centre. For a simulator pilot the field is notable both for its exceptionally long single runway and for a layered history that runs from Italian colonial service through Luftwaffe, US Air Force, Libyan and Soviet use.
The airport is located at Tripoli, in the Tripoli district of Libya, about 8 kilometres east of the city centre, on Libya's Mediterranean coast. It is a joint civil/military aerodrome, and as the only functioning international airport for Tripoli since 2018 it now handles the bulk of scheduled traffic for the capital.
Mitiga has a single physical runway, 10/28, orientated east-west. It is a hard-surfaced, lit runway roughly 11,000 feet long (10,993 ft on the 10 threshold and 11,014 ft on the 28 threshold), with an instrument landing system serving runway 28. Field elevation is 26 feet.
The tower callsign operates on 126.3 MHz. Runway 28 is equipped with an ILS for instrument approaches.
The airfield was originally built in 1923 by the Italian Air Force as Mellaha Air Base (الملاّحة). A motor racing circuit was later built around the airfield, and Mellaha Lake hosted the popular Tripoli Grand Prix from 1933. During the North African Campaign the base was used by the German Luftwaffe, principally by the 2nd Staffel of Aufklärungsgruppe (H) 14, flying Henschel Hs 126 reconnaissance aircraft alongside Fieseler Fi 156 Storch liaison aircraft and a Junkers Ju 52 transport. The British 8th Army captured the base in January 1943, and the US Army Air Force began operating from it that same month, using it for Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombing missions with the 376th Bombardment Group and as an Air Transport Command stopover on the Cairo-Dakar route. On 15 April 1945 the field passed to USAAF Air Training Command and was renamed Wheelus Army Air Field on 17 May 1945, honouring Lieutenant Richard Wheelus. A 1954 agreement extended American use, but the US withdrew by 1970 following the 1969 Libyan coup d'état, handing the base to the new Libyan government. It was renamed Okba Ben Nafi Air Base, after the historical general, and became a major Libyan People's Air Force installation, hosting Soviet-made MiG-17, MiG-19 and MiG-25 fighters and Tu-22 bombers, with Soviet Air Force personnel also based there. On 16 April 1986 the base was a primary target of the US bombing of Libya (Operation El Dorado Canyon), struck by F-111 Aardvarks of the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing together with EF-111A Ravens and carrier-based Navy aircraft; one F-111F was lost in the raid. In 1995 the base was converted for civilian use and given its current name, Mitiga International Airport. It sustained light damage during the 2011 Libyan Civil War, during which a Libyan Air Force colonel defected from the base and rebel forces later launched an assault there.
Mitiga continues to operate as a joint civil and military airport and has been Tripoli's sole international airport since the closure of Tripoli International Airport in 2014. Several airlines have operated scheduled domestic and international services from the field, including Libyan Airlines, Afriqiyah Airways, Libyan Wings, Buraq Air, Berniq Air, Global Air and Tunisair.
