Houari Boumediene Airport
Facts on ALG
The airport opened in 1924 as Maison Blanche Airport, named for the surrounding Dar El Beïda ('White House') district; it kept that name through the Algerian War of Independence before being renamed for Boumédiène after his 1978 death.
Source: Wikipedia
The airport is named for Houari Boumédiène (1932-1978), who rose through the FLN's military wing during Algeria's War of Independence, seized power in a bloodless 1965 coup, and ruled as Algeria's second head of state until his death from a rare blood cancer — his funeral drew two million mourners.
Source: Wikipedia
The name the airport carries, Houari Boumédiène, was itself a nom de guerre, not a birth name — born Mohammed ben Brahim Boukharouba, he adopted the name in 1955 from two Sufi patron saints, Sidi Boumédiène of Tlemcen and Sidi El Houari of Oran, cities where he had served as an FLN officer.
Source: Wikipedia
During the Second World War, RAF Hawker Hurricanes of No. 43 Squadron flew combat patrols from the airfield starting November 1942, and it later became a major U.S. Army Air Forces transshipment hub on the Cairo-Dakar transport route, also handling flights to Marseille, Milan, Naples and Palermo.
Source: Wikipedia
Terminal 4, opened in April 2019 on a 73-hectare site, added capacity for 10 million more passengers a year through 120 check-in points and 21 telescopic gateways, and can accommodate the Airbus A380.
Source: Wikipedia
The public company that runs the airport, SGSIA, was established on 1 November 2006 and employs 2,100 people managing its four passenger terminals.
Source: Wikipedia
On 23 July 1968, three Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine members hijacked El Al Flight 426, a Boeing 707 with 48 people aboard, and diverted it to Algiers — all hostages were eventually released unharmed.
Source: Wikipedia