Departure
89%
vs 95% ▼ 6
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Riyan International Airport, also known as Riyan Mukalla International Airport, serves the coastal city of Mukalla in Yemen's Hadhramaut Governorate. It offers a single long, lit hard-surface runway and a history bound up with Yemen's turbulent recent past, including a period of closure during the civil war and Al Qaeda occupation of Mukalla. Today it operates as an international gateway with Yemenia service to regional destinations.
Riyan International Airport lies on the Arabian Sea coast near Mukalla, the capital of Hadhramaut Governorate in eastern Yemen. Built in its current form in the early 1980s, it is the main air gateway for the Mukalla area and has passed through several changes of name and ownership status, most recently reopening under Emirates Red Crescent-funded renovation after years of disruption caused by the Yemeni civil war. For a simulator pilot, the field is notable both for its very long single runway, disproportionate to its regional traffic, and for the layers of history bound up in its story, from Cold War-era development financing to a period under threat from militant control.
The airport sits on the coast at Riyan, adjacent to Mukalla, within Yemeni airspace over Hadhramaut Governorate. It should not be confused with the former RAF Riyan station, a separate wartime airfield that was located about 4 kilometres to the west, closer to Mukalla itself. No specific airspace classification or controlled zone detail is available from the sources consulted.
The airport has a single physical runway, 06/24, 9,798 feet long with a hard surface and runway lighting. There is no ILS installed.
Ground movements are handled on 121.9 MHz, the tower frequency is 118.3 MHz, and a radio (RDO) frequency of 565.8 MHz is also listed for the field. No published instrument approach or additional navaid information is available from the sources consulted.
No specific joining or circuit procedure information is available from the sources consulted.
No published visual reference points are available from the sources consulted; the airport is identifiable by its coastal position on the Arabian Sea immediately adjacent to Mukalla.
Construction of Riyan Airport began in 1979 with West German engineering consultation and financing from the Kuwait Fund, at a stated cost of 10,500 Yemeni rials, and the airport was completed in its current form in May 1982. In 2001 it was renamed from Riyan Airport to Mukalla Airport, though its original name continued to be used in international civil aviation documents and by navigational broadcasts. In 2008 the airport's air traffic control and security systems were upgraded, and Yemen's first flight academy, the Golden Way Academy, opened there. Flights were suspended in March 2015 as the Yemeni civil war led Al Qaeda militants to seize control of Mukalla, and a no-fly zone was subsequently imposed over Yemen by the Saudi Arabian-led intervention. After Mukalla was liberated from Al Qaeda, the airport remained closed until the Emirates Red Crescent funded new terminal buildings and renovated the older facilities at a cost of AED 25 million. The airport was renamed back to Riyan International Airport in January 2018, and reopened on 27 November 2019 with continued support from the Emirates Red Crescent; the Governor of Hadramawt, Maj Gen Faraj Al Bahsani, expressed optimism that resumed flights would bring economic benefit to the region. On 9 April 2021, the Yemeni flag carrier Yemenia restarted flights from the airport to Socotra and Aden.
Riyan International Airport is served by Yemenia, which operates flights to Aden, Cairo, Dubai-Al Maktoum, Jeddah and Socotra. No information on fuel availability, operating hours, or prior permission requirements is available from the sources consulted.