Map - Tripoli International Airport (Tripoli International Airport)

Tripoli International Airport (مطار طرابلس العالمي) is a closed international airport built to serve Tripoli, the capital city of Libya. The airport is located in the area of Qasr bin Ghashir, 24 km from central Tripoli. It used to be the hub for Libyan Airlines, Afriqiyah Airways, and Buraq Air.

The airport has been closed intermittently since 2011 and as of early 2018, flights to and from Tripoli have been using Mitiga International Airport instead.

During the 2014 Libyan Civil War, the airport was heavily damaged in the Battle of Tripoli Airport. The airport reopened for limited commercial use in July 2017. In April 2019, however, it was reported that Mitiga had become the last functioning airport in Tripoli during the 2019–20 Western Libya campaign. It was soon acknowledged that the ruling Government of National Accord (GNA) had bombed the airport in order to recapture it from the Libyan National Army (LNA). Mitiga was soon shut down as well after being bombed by the LNA, thus making Misrata Airport, located approximately 200 km (125 miles) to the east down the coast, the nearest airport for Tripoli residents.

The airport was originally called Tripoli-Castel Benito Airport and was a Regia Aeronautica (Italian Air Force) airfield built in 1934 in the southern outskirts of Italian Tripoli.

In 1938 the governor of Italian Libya, Italo Balbo, enlarged the military airfield to create an international airport for civilians served by Ala Littoria, the official Italian airline: the Aeroporto di Tripoli-Castel Benito. The first international flights were to Rome, Tunis, and Malta. In 1939, a flight from Rome to Ethiopia and Somalia was one of the first intercontinental flights.

During World War II the airport was destroyed, but the airfield was later used by the British Royal Air Force and named RAF Castel Benito, changing to RAF Idris in 1952. In the 1950s and 1960s the airport was known as Tripoli Idris International Airport. It was renovated for national and international air travel in September 1978. The existing international terminal was designed and built from a masterplan developed by Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners.

The airport closed from March 2011 to October 2011 as a result of the United Nations Security Council establishing a no-fly zone over Libya. The Zintan Brigade captured the airport during their advance on Tripoli on 21 August 2011. The airport was officially reopened on 11 October 2011.

On 14 July 2014, the airport was the site of fierce battle as militias from the city of Misrata attempted to take control of the airport. The airport has been closed to flights since the clashes. On 23 August 2014, after 40 days of clashes, Zintan forces, which controlled the airport, withdrew. The Los Angeles Times reported that at least 90% of the airport's facilities and 20 airplanes were destroyed in the fighting.

While still under the control of Misrata militias, the VIP terminal, which had not been not as badly damaged, was reopened on 16 February 2017. A new passenger terminal is in planning by the political body representing the militias.

In April 2019, the airport was captured by forces loyal to the Libyan National Army (LNA) and its leader Khalifa Haftar and was held for over a year, despite the control of the airport passing back to the GNA briefly in May 2019. Due to its location at the southern border of the Tripoli Metropolitan Area, it served as a part of the larger suburban stronghold of Qasr bin Ghashir village south of Tripoli City, used as a staging ground in attacks attempting to capture or weaken GNA's hold of the capital. As a result of ongoing clashes, it was acknowledged that the open terrain was subject to retaliatory and preliminary bombing by the GNA from Tripoli frontier, making it unusable as an airport.