Diori Hamani International Airport is an airport in

Niamey Niamey () is the capital and largest city of Niger. Niamey lies on the Niger River, primarily situated on the east bank. Niamey's population was counted as 1,026,848 as of the 2012 census. As of 2017, population projections show the capital dis ...

, the capital of

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesRoute Nationale 1 The Route nationale 1 is a trunk road ( nationale) in France between Paris and Calais. It is approximately long. Reclassification The majority of the original road has been superseded by the A16 autoroute. As a result, much of the road has no ...

, the major highway linking Niamey with the east of the nation. The airport complex also includes the major base for the

Armed Forces of Niger The Niger Armed Forces (french: Forces armées nigériennes) (FAN) includes military armed force service branches (Niger Army and Niger Air Force), paramilitary services branches (National Gendarmerie of Niger and National Guard of Niger) and ...

's "''Armee d'Air''".

Overview

Traffic

In 2019, the airport served 363,093 passengers. The

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 airsp ...

for NIM is operated by the

ASECNA The Agency for Aerial Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar (''L'Agence pour la Sécurité de la Navigation aérienne en Afrique et à Madagascar'', ASECNA) is an air traffic control agency based in Dakar, Senegal. It manages 16.1 million sq ...

, which bases one of its five air traffic zones for the continent at Niamey. The airport is named after Hamani Diori (1916–1989), the first

President of Niger This is a list of heads of state of Niger since the country gained independence from France in 1960 to the present day. A total of ten people have served as head of state of Niger. The current head of state of Niger is the President of the Re ...

EAMAC

operates the "''African School for Meteorology and Civil Aviation/Ecole Africaine de la Météorologie et de l'Aviation Civile''" at the Niamey airport complex, as well as in the Plateau quarter of Niamey city centre. Founded in 1963, EAMAC trains

civil aviation Civil aviation is one of two major categories of flying, representing all non-military and non-state aviation, both private and commercial. Most of the countries in the world are members of the International Civil Aviation Organization and work ...

professionals and aviation

meteorologists A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...

from across Africa.

Base Aérienne 101

The Niger Air Force maintains Base Aérienne 101, collocated with Diori Hamani International Airport, and it is used by both the American and French armed forces for

counter-terrorism Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or ...

operations. In 2013, U.S. African Command spokesman Benjamin Benson confirmed that U.S. air operations conducted from Base Aérienne 101 at Diori Hamani International Airport were providing "support for intelligence collection with French forces conducting operations in Mali and with other partners in the region." In July 2013, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' reported that the deployment had expanded from one

Predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill t ...

UAV to daily flights by a detachment of two larger

MQ-9 Reaper The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (sometimes called Predator B) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) primarily for the Un ...

remotely piloted aircraft, supported by 120

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...

personnel. The MQ-9 Reapers are scheduled to be relocated to

Niger Air Base 201 Niger Air Base 201 (also known in some sources as "Nigerien Air Base 201") is a United States drone airbase near Agadez, Niger. The base is about 5 km southeast of Agadez. It is owned by the Nigerien military but built and paid for by the Uni ...

. Around 2013, two

Ku band The Ku band () is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies from 12 to 18 gigahertz (GHz). The symbol is short for "K-under" (originally german: Kurz-unten), because it is the lower part of the or ...

arrays were constructed at the airport to allow for communication with

EADS Harfang The EADS Harfang, formerly known as ''Système intérimaire de drone MALE'' (SIDM, "Interim medium-altitude, long-endurance drone system") is a unmanned aerial vehicle used by the French Air Force, supplementing the RQ-5 Hunter. Development ...

UAVs. The

French Air and Space Force The French Air and Space Force (AAE) (french: Armée de l'air et de l'espace, ) is the air and space force of the French Armed Forces. It was the first military aviation force in history, formed in 1909 as the , a service arm of the French Ar ...

Escadron de Drones 1/33 Belfort has operated three MQ-9 Reapers out of the base since January 2014 in support of

Operation Barkhane Operation Barkhane was an anti-insurgent operation that started on 1 August 2014 and formally ended on 9 November 2022. It was led by the French military against Islamist groups in Africa's Sahel region. France has also deployed

Dassault Mirage 2000D The Dassault Mirage 2000N is a variant of the Mirage 2000 designed for nuclear strike. It formed the core of the French air-based strategic nuclear deterrent. The Mirage 2000D is its conventional attack counterpart. Development The Mirage ...

aircraft from the French Air Forces detachment (DETAIR) to the base. The Nigerien Air Force operates two Cessna-208 Caravans equipped for

ISTAR ISTAR stands for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance. In its macroscopic sense, ISTAR is a practice that links several battlefield functions together to assist a combat force in employing its sensors and managing ...

operations at the airport. A French Operational Transport Group is based at the airbase which currently controls Lockheed C-130J Hercules aircraft instead of the previous Transall C-160's.

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

Ground transportation

Road

Diori Hamani International Airport is situated on

Route Nationale 1 The Route nationale 1 is a trunk road ( nationale) in France between Paris and Calais. It is approximately long. Reclassification The majority of the original road has been superseded by the A16 autoroute. As a result, much of the road has no ...

, which connects it to the city of

to the northeast, as well as to Dosso, Maradi, Zinder,

Goure Goure (fr. Gouré) is a town in southeastern Niger, Zinder Region, Goure Department, of which it is the seat. Situation Situated on the main all-weather east–west highway in Southern Niger, it is about 170 km east of regional capital, ...

, Diffa, and N'guigmi to the east.

Rail

The railway passing by the airport, which connects it to

Niamey railway station Niamey (french: Gare de Niamey), colloquially also known as ''Niamey Hippodrome'', is the main railway station of the city of Niamey, the capital of Niger. Located near the Niamey Racecourse (''Hippodrome de Niamey''), in Niamey IV borough, is ...

and Dosso, is abandoned since its construction (and will not be operational in the near future).

References

External links

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ais-asecna.org Aeronautical charts for NIAMEY/Diori Hamani (DRRN)
{{authority control Airports in Niger Buildings and structures in Niamey Airport Diori Hamani