Houari Boumediene Airport

Houari Boumediene Airport (Arabic: مطار هواري بومدين الدولي‎, French: Aéroport d'Alger Houari Boumediene) (IATA: ALG, ICAO: DAAG), also known as Algiers Airport or Algiers International Airport, is an international airport serving Algiers, the capital of Algeria. It is located 9.1 NM (16.9 km; 10.5 mi) east southeast of the city.

The airport is named after Houari Boumediene, a former president of Algeria. Dar El Beïda, the area at which the airport is located, was known as Maison Blanche (White House), and the airport is called Maison Blanche Airport in much of the literature about the Algerian War of Independence.

The Société de Gestion des Services et Infrastructures Aéroportuaires (SGSIA), more commonly known as "Airport of Algiers", is a Public Company established on 1 November 2006 to manage and operate the airport. The SGSIA has 2,100 employees.

History

The airport was created in 1924 and named Maison Blanche Airport. During World War II, Maison Blanche Airport was a primary objective of the Allied Operation Torch Eastern Task Force on 8 November 1942 and was seized by a combination of United States Army units, British Commandos and elements of a British Infantry Division. Opposition by Vichy French forces who defended the airport ended that same day, as orders from Admiral Darlan in Algiers were issued to cease all hostilities in North Africa.

Houari Boumediene

Houari Boumédiène, also transcribed Boumediene, Boumedienne etc., (Arabic: هواري بومدين‎ ; ALA-LC: Hawārī Bū-Madyan; 23 August 1932 – 27 December 1978) served as Chairman of the Revolutionary Council of Algeria from 19 June 1965 until 12 December 1976 and thereafter as the second President of Algeria until his death on 27 December 1978.

Background

Boumédiène was born Mohammed Ben Brahim Boukharouba () near Héliopolis in Algeria's Guelma Province and was educated at the Islamic Institute in Constantine. He joined the National Liberation Front (FLN) in the Algerian War of Independence in 1955, adopting Houari Boumédiène as his nom-de-guerre (from Sidi Boumediène, the name of the patron saint of the city of Tlemcen in western Algeria, where he served as an officer during the war, and Sidi El Houari, the patron saint of nearby Oran). He reached the rank of Colonel, then the highest rank in the FLN forces, and from 1960 he was chief of staff of the ALN, the FLN's military wing. But at this point of the war, the ALN had been defeated and badly hurt by the French operations and Boumédiène accepted a difficult command.