Khartoum International Airport (KRT) — Airport Guide 2026

⚠️ The Advisory — This Comes First

Three governments whose advisories cover most readers of this guide all place Sudan at their highest warning tier, and all three renewed those advisories in 2026.

The United States put Sudan at Level 4, “Do Not Travel,” renewed 15 May 2026, citing armed conflict, crime, kidnapping, terrorism, civil unrest, landmines, and health risks. The US Embassy in Khartoum suspended operations in April 2023 and has not reopened. The United Kingdom FCDO advises against all travel to Sudan; the British Embassy in Khartoum is closed, British consular staff are absent from the country, and the FCDO states plainly that its ability to help is severely limited. France (MEAE) formally advises against travel to the whole of Sudan, in an advisory last updated 12 March 2026, with Darfur, Kordofan, and the border zones singled out as most dangerous.

The practical meaning: if you are robbed, injured, detained, or caught in an attack, there is no embassy in Khartoum to contact. Greater Khartoum still sees fighting and aerial strikes; the capital runs on 12–18 hours of daily power cuts with widespread water shortages. Everything else in this guide sits inside that frame.

✈️ The Reopening — What Is Actually Running

The airport closed 15 April 2023 in the opening days of the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The runway sat on a front line, was fought over and struck repeatedly, and carried no civilian scheduled traffic for nearly three years. The SAF retook control of greater Khartoum in 2025; months of repairs followed before any aircraft returned.

Three dates define the current operational picture:

1 February 2026 — the first scheduled flight since the war. Sudan Airways flew a domestic Port Sudan–Khartoum connection carrying about 160 passengers. Tickets on that service started around US$50. Airport officials described the field as capable of handling up to four scheduled flights a day — a deliberately modest number that tells you the operation’s scale. (One unannounced Badr Airlines flight had landed in October 2025, but nothing scheduled followed it until February.)

28 April 2026 — the first direct international commercial flight in three years: a Kuwait Airways service bringing roughly 300 Sudanese nationals home from Kuwait.

4 May 2026 — a long-range drone attack struck several sites across Khartoum State, including the airport. Two missiles landed in the eastern section near Obeid Khatim Street, damaging an administrative building. Sudanese authorities blamed the RSF. Sudanese airspace closed briefly to international traffic, then reopened within days; Badr Airlines and Tarco Aviation resumed flights shortly afterward.

The confirmed carriers operating since the reopening are Sudan Airways, Kuwait Airways, Badr Airlines, and Tarco Aviation. Anything beyond that list is unconfirmed. Treat all schedules as provisional and check directly with the carrier close to any travel date.

🛂 Border & Visa

Sudan does not participate in any regional free-movement arrangement or European entry scheme. Almost every foreign visitor needs a Sudanese visa in advance.

Visa options

The two standard routes are an e-visa / electronic travel authorisation through Sudanese authorities, or a sticker visa from a Sudanese embassy or consulate in your home country. A visa on arrival is technically possible, but only at Khartoum airport and only if arranged in advance — it is not a walk-up counter and it is not available at land borders at all. Carry printed copies of your visa or authorisation; do not rely on a phone screen. Passport validity of at least six months is required.

Yellow fever

The common assumption — “Africa, therefore yellow fever” — is wrong here. Sudan requires the vaccination certificate only if you are arriving from a country with risk of yellow-fever transmission, or transiting such a country for more than 12 hours. It is not a blanket requirement for every arrival. Where it applies, the International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis is checked at the health desk before passport control; under current WHO rules the certificate is valid for life. Confirm your specific itinerary against the current list before travel, as endemic-country classifications are updated periodically.

Documents and cash at the border

Bring your printed visa or authorisation, any required vaccination certificate, and enough hard currency for your first days. Foreign cards are unreliable and ATMs do not reliably serve international accounts.

🚕 Getting to the City

Khartoum International sits unusually close to the centre — about 4 km, near the confluence of the Blue and White Nile — which in normal times made it one of the more convenient urban airports in the region. In normal times.

The pre-war standard was a short taxi ride, with the cheaper option being a 10-minute walk to Africa Street for a shared minibus. Africa Street still exists. In 2026 the sensible — and realistically the only advisable — option is a taxi or pre-arranged private transfer, arranged through your carrier or accommodation before you land. A confirmed car removes the negotiation and the exposure that come with sorting transport on the spot in a conflict-affected capital.

The standard airport caution applies with added weight here: anyone who approaches you unsolicited inside or just outside the terminal offering a ride carries the usual overcharge-and-uncertainty risk, except that in Khartoum there is no consular backstop if the ride goes wrong. Agree the destination and fare before you get in. A specific fare in Sudanese pounds is not given in this guide — a reliable current figure could not be verified, and a confident-but-wrong number would be worse than none.

🛋️ Lounges

There is no verified, currently-operating lounge at Khartoum International in 2026. No Priority Pass, LoungeKey, or DragonPass access has been confirmed since the February reopening. Whatever lounge facilities existed before April 2023 cannot be assumed to have survived the war or to be running on a four-flights-a-day operation. Plan for a bare-bones terminal and do not purchase a lounge-pass product expecting to use it here.

🌍 Layover Reality

For most airports this section weighs distance against time. Here the distance is irrelevant — the verdict is set by the advisory, not the map.

The US, UK, and France all tell their citizens not to travel to Sudan at all. A transiting passenger leaving the terminal is doing exactly what those advisories warn against, in a city with no Western embassy to call. Khartoum’s geography is genuinely distinctive — the Blue Nile and the White Nile meet here to form the main Nile, and in peacetime the confluence, the national museum, and the markets were real draws. None of that is the point now.

With active conflict in and around greater Khartoum, daily 12–18 hour power outages, water shortages, and a drone strike on the airport itself in May 2026, leaving secured airport grounds to sightsee is not appropriate for a transit passenger regardless of layover length. If you are passing through KRT on a confirmed itinerary, stay within the airport until your onward flight. This guide will not manufacture a half-day excursion the security reality does not support.

💰 Currency & Connectivity

Currency

The Sudanese pound (SDG) is the local currency — roughly 600 SDG to the US dollar and 700 SDG to the euro as of May 2026. Years of war have pushed Sudan into a heavily cash-based economy; parallel (street) exchange rates can diverge from the official rate. Foreign cards are unreliable and terminal ATMs may refuse international cards altogether. Bring US dollars or euros in cash, change only what you need, and agree the rate before handing anything over — both bureau-de-change counters and informal changers carry a markup.

Connectivity

Do not assume working Wi-Fi, reliable mobile data, or stable power at the terminal. The capital runs on 12–18 hours of daily outages. Sort your communications — a roaming plan, offline maps, your carrier’s contact details — before you arrive, not after.

❓ FAQ

📊 At a glance — KRT 2026