Asmara Airport (Eritrea) Info
 

Hi all, I would appreciate any first hand info. you might have of operating into Asmara, in Eritrea. (HHAS).

Any info re:

- ATC
- Terrain
- Fuelling
- Ground Handling
- Charges

... etc., would be highly appreciated.

Thanks!

320DRIVER

Asmara Intl
IATA: N/A
ICAO: HHAS
Eritrea
Latitude: 15°17' 30" N
Longitude: 38°54' 38" E
Elevation: 7661
Runway Length: 9842 Feet
Runway Length: 5951 Feet
Asmara Int´l Airport (ASM/HHAS)

PO Box 252, Asmara Int´l Airport, Asmara
Tel: +291 (1) 181822, (1) 182899
Fax: +291 (1) 181825
AFTN: HHASAYYX
Airfield Data
Runway 1: Aircraft size max: B707

Cargo Facilities: Animal Quarantine
Customs Hours: 03:00-15:00 CITC

Flew out of HHAS in late October 1994 in a HU-16
All I remember, was that getting fuel involved a lot of bakshish. And once we got it, it was outrageously over priced. We had to go to Luxor, Egypt to get some more. ( not any better, 500 U.S$ for the marshaller, Come on now!!).
But that was then, I am sure things are much better now. ( Right;) )
Good luck and watch for the rocks all around the field and the guards carrying AK-47s all over the airport.

Thanks for the info. 'til now... I thought that some European airlines (including DLH?) currently fly into HHAS.

Understand Lufthansa extend their Daily Cairo A340 into Khartoum thrice and to Asmara thrice - ALL fuel & crew slipping done in Cairo for Quality/Security reasons

Been there, done that... :-) Anyway, here are some notes I made. They will be useful to someone not used to opertae into this area of the world, but I'm sure anyone of you guys operating regularly into these airports can provide corrections/further insight to the comments below. And also, no liability is assumed ;-)

Coming from the North, communications is by VHF until end of Cairo FIR, where you have to switch to HF when speaking to Khartoum Radio over Sudan... quite hopeless really since it seems that the whole of Africa uses the same frequency!

Back up yourselves by transmitting position reports on the common Africa frequency. The format to do the position report is on the Jeppesen Airways chart too. Remember to call Khartoum 10 mins before FIR boundary both ways

First contact with Asmara is HF, much better than Khartoum, and you quickly switch to VHF anyway.

Asmara ATC, though procedural, seem pretty good. They gave us descent clearance according to MORA and MSA, i.e. initially to FL135 (MORA) then to FL115 (MSA) when within 25 Nm of the field. When we asked for the Asmara weather he said, "Fine!"... We politely asked him to elaborate which he duly did!

Better to do the full procedure over the field. Waste a few minutes but keeps your a** covered :-). Remember to do the 10,000 checks at least at FL180 or before since field ELEV is 7660.

Also remember (On A320 at least) to amend the deceleration to below FL180 since the system will still default to decelerate at FL100 even if you had told it that the field was at 7660!

There are small hills all around.

The ILS 07 is pretty standard. No tricks apparent!

Approach will feel strange due high elevation. I.e. the engine will have an "abnormally" high power setting for approach. The ground speed will also be a bit high due to rarefied air and you will consequently have a higher descent rate than "usual" to maintain the glide. You must "fight" the tendency to shallow the profile to avoid landing deep.

The runway appears to have a depression in the middle, i.e. it will look downsloping when on approach.

Cannot comment re: lighting since it was day for us.

Handling is pretty good. Start-up was by headset.

Fuelling is by Shell.

Photography is strictly prohibited.

A320 auto start worked well even at high elevation.

Again, take-off is at a higher ground speed and you can actually feel the difference. Take-off N1, was 100.4% with a 21 DegC OAT.

Departure clearance was non-existent i.e. just "Climb enroute to FL350" ... we took off from 07 with a left turn to intercept the northbound airway towards Port Sudan VOR (PSD)