Riyan International Airport (), also known as the Riyan Mukalla International Airport (), is an

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports, and feature longer runways and have faciliti ...

Mukalla Mukalla, officially the Mukalla City District, is a seaport and the capital city district of Yemen's largest governorate, Hadhramaut Governorate, Hadhramaut. The city is in the South Arabia, southern part of the Arabian Peninsula on the Gulf of A ...

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

. It is not to be confused with the former RAF Riyan, which was located closer to Mukalla.

History

The original airport was built around the 1930s. The airport got rebuilt after the government of Democratic Yemen received a

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

from Kuwait. The new airport got built with the consultation of a

West German West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republic after its capital c ...

company. The construction of the new airport finished on May 1982. In 2001, the airport got renamed from "Riyan Airport" to "Mukalla Airport," but its old name remained in use in international civil aviation documents and navigational devices operating at the airport still broadcast its international definition of "Riyan Airport." In 2008, the airport's

Air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled air ...

and

Airport security Airport security includes the techniques and methods used in an attempt to protect passengers, staff, aircraft, and airport property from malicious harm, crime, terrorism, and other threats. Aviation security is a combination of measures and hum ...

systems got upgraded and the first ever flight academy in Yemen, Golden Way Academy, got opened. Flights were suspended in March 2015 as a result of the Yemeni civil war which led Al Qaeda militants to take advantage of the turmoil and control Mukalla. A no-fly zone over Yemen was imposed by the Saudi Arabian-led intervention due to the military conflict. Mukalla was later liberated from Al Qaeda, but the airport remained closed until the Emirates Red Crescent funded the building of new terminals and renovated the old airport at a cost of AED 25 million. In January 2018, the Airport got renamed back to "Riyan International Airport." On November 27, 2019, the airport was reopened with the support of the Emirates Red Crescent. The Governor of Hadramawt province, Maj Gen Faraj Al Bahsani, said he was optimistic that the return of flights would bring economic benefits. On 9 April 2021,

Yemenia Yemenia () is the flag carrier of Yemen, based in Sanaa. It operates scheduled domestic and international passenger flights to destinations in Africa and the Middle East out of its airline hub, hubs at Aden International Airport, and to a lesser ...

, the Yemeni

flag carrier A flag carrier is a transport company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given sovereign state, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by that government for international operations. Histo ...

, restarted flights to Socotra and Aden.

Airlines and destinations

References

{{authority control Airports in Yemen Mukalla

History

Airlines and destinations

See also

References