Mekele Alula Aba Nega Airport guide

Alula Aba Nega Airport serves Mekelle, the capital of the Tigray Region in northern Ethiopia. The ICAO code is HAMK. The airport sits about 10 km southeast of the city at an elevation of about 2,256 m, on the northern Ethiopian plateau. It is named after Ras Alula Aba Nega, the 19th-century military leader who fought at the Battle of Adwa.

The airport was built in the late 1990s to replace an older field about 7 km from Mekelle. It has one asphalt runway, 11/29, which is 3,604 m long and 43 m wide. The original runway was unpaved and 3,000 m long. Ethiopian Airlines is the scheduled carrier. At opening it flew to Addis Ababa, Shire and Humera, with Addis Ababa the main route.

Ethiopian Airports Enterprise operates the airport. An Ethiopian Airlines Dash-8 crash-landed here on 18 January 2024 when its left main landing gear collapsed. In September 2026 Ethiopian Airlines suspended its flights to Mekelle, Shire and Axum because of the situation in the Tigray Region, after Tigrayan forces took control of the airport on 23 September. In early October 2026 reports said federal forces had retaken it, and control remained unclear. No restart date has been announced, so confirm with the airline before you travel.