Qualla: Khartoum International Airport

Khartoum International Airport: Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Petr Adam Dohnálek, CC BY-SA 3.0 cz. On 22 October 2025 a Badr Airlines flight from Port Sudan landed at Khartoum International Airport for the first time in two and a half years. The terminal had been mostly quiet since 15 April 2023, the day the Rapid Support Forces attacked a Saudia airliner on arrival and set off a fight for the airport and the city around it. Twenty aircraft were destroyed in the first hours of the civil war. The RSF occupied the terminal until the Sudanese Armed Forces retook it on 25 March 2025 as part of the broader Khartoum offensive. On the day before the reopening, at 4 AM, a drone attack hit near the airport. Another drone struck on the day of the reopening itself. A third came the next day. Badr's flight landed anyway. That is what reopening an airport during an ongoing war looks like.

Image: Petr Adam Dohnálek | CC BY-SA 3.0 cz

Khartoum International Airport: Gordon's Tree

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Sudani assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public domain. The airport's Wikipedia page makes it sound British, and in one sense it was. The field was originally a Royal Air Force airstrip called Gordon's Tree, named for the 1885 death of General Charles Gordon inside besieged Khartoum, and by January 1940 No. 223 Squadron RAF was operat...

Image: No machine-readable author provided. Sudani assumed (based on copyright claims). | Public domain

Khartoum International Airport: Changing Codes

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Petr Adam Dohnálek, CC BY-SA 3.0 cz. A new Khartoum International Airport has been planned for years south of the center of Khartoum, in Omdurman 40 km away. Design targets are ambitious: two 4,000-meter runways, an 86,000-square-meter passenger terminal, a 300-room international hotel. Construction by China Harbour...

Image: Petr Adam Dohnálek | CC BY-SA 3.0 cz

Khartoum International Airport: 15 April 2023

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Usamah Mohammed from Khartoum, Sudan, CC BY-SA 2.0. The first day of the Sudanese civil war opened at the airport. Rapid Support Forces paramilitaries attacked key installations across Khartoum, and Khartoum International was near the top of their target list. A Saudia airliner that was arriving from elsewhere came under fire; no ...

Image: Usamah Mohammed from Khartoum, Sudan | CC BY-SA 2.0

Khartoum International Airport: Accidents Before the War

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Petr Adam Dohnálek, CC BY-SA 3.0 cz. Civil aviation at Khartoum had its rougher moments long before 2023. On 19 July 1983 a Chevron Oil Douglas C-47A crashed after takeoff, both engines failing likely due to contaminated fuel; all 27 aboard survived. The worst incident was Sudan Airways Flight 109 on 10 June 2008. T...

Image: Petr Adam Dohnálek | CC BY-SA 3.0 cz

Khartoum International Airport: Reopening Under Drones

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Flickr user Ahmed Rabea Modification: User:(WT-shared) Tiagox2, CC BY-SA 2.0. Reopening Khartoum International after March 2025 was not a simple matter of clearing rubble. The RSF, having lost the airport, shifted to drone warfare, which does not need to occupy a target to damage it. Three consecutive days of drone strikes, 21, 22, and 23 October 2025, bra...

Image: Flickr user Ahmed Rabea Modification: User:(WT-shared) Tiagox2 | CC BY-SA 2.0