Khartoum International Airport (KRT) in Sudan received on Sunday, Feb. 1, its first scheduled commercial passenger flight, operated by Sudan Airways, since the war between the government and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began in April 2023.
More on the flight
The aircraft had departed from Port Sudan (PZU), on the country’s Red Sea coast, and carried dozens of passengers.
The state-owned Sudan Airways had announced the flight only one day prior, on Saturday, with tickets starting at $50. In an official statement, the national carrier said:
“[this flight] reflects the return of spirit and the continuation of the connection between the sons of the nation.”
Al Jazeera reported that the aircraft was greeted with “scenes of jubilation” upon landing and quoted Sudanese officials as saying the airport would now be ready to accommodate up to four flights per day.
The war in Sudan
The current war in Sudan erupted as the national army and the RSF, respectively led by generals Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, clashed over control of the country’s territory and resources.
The conflict quickly escalated and resulted in more than 150,000 people killed between April 2023 and June 2024 alone, and over 14 million displaced, according to reports from the Guardian. It is widely considered to be the world’s largest humanitarian crisis at present.
The closure of the capital’s airport, which was badly damaged in the first weeks of the conflict, severely impacted air travel in the country.
In March 2025, the Sudanese army said it had regained full control of Khartoum, and last month, it officially moved its headquarters back to the capital. They had previously been based in Port Sudan, the government’s wartime capital and home to the country’s international airport since the beginning of the war.
Previous attempt to reopen the airport
On Oct. 22, 2025, a flight operated by the privately owned Badr Airlines, which had not been announced beforehand, landed in Khartoum, according to airport authorities.
The flight came as Sudan’s Civil Aviation Authority revealed plans to reopen Khartoum’s airport. But as the RSF launched multiple drone attacks on the airport, which were reportedly intercepted by the Sudanese army, no further attempt had been made until this Sunday.
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