Hi Allan and WHBM,
The current airfield seems to be at least 20 miles east of the old river course, and accessible allegedly only by 4WD vehicles. I guess you would have remembered if it was that far to your floating hotel, Allan?
Wiki confirms that a new town had to be created to prepare for the flooding of the old by the new Lake Nubia (or Nuba), which would not have filled until the mid-1970s. Oddly, no mention is made of the fate of the airfield. (BTW, I infer from elsewhere that there may have been a veicle ferry to cross the Nile, prior to the lake filling.)
Aswan Dam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[click on "Resettlement"]
The apron of the contemporary airfield was literally paved, as a super shot of a Hunting-Clan Viscount 700, taken probably by its skipper in 1955, confirms. (G-ANRR was written off in a fatal flight-test accident in December 1958, due to maintenance error.)
Wadi Halfa Airport | Online references | cyclopaedia.net
Here's a link to the specific photo:
G-ANRR - Hunting-Clan Air Transport Vickers Viscount at Wadi Halfa | Photo ID 84441 | Airplane-Pictures.net
My final link also includes a photo of the apron in 1955 - this time with Piston Provosts being ferried by the RRAF from the UK to New Sarum. Earlier, on their positioning flight on CAA to the UK, the crews had night-stopped at Wadi Halfa on a "river steamer":
The Third Royal Rhodesian Air Force Provost Ferry, No 4 Squadron, Rhodesian Air Force
It all looks very organised. But things were, in those days...