Houari Boumediene Airport — Algiers, Algeria

Algeria's capital and largest city is served by an airport named for Houari Boumediene, who seized power in a 1965 coup against Ahmed Ben Bella and went on to rule the country for over a decade, steering its economy toward state control of the oil and gas sector that still dominates Algeria today. The field stands 82 feet above the Mediterranean and runs two runways carrying the highest passenger volume of any airport in Algeria, underscoring Algiers' role as the country's political, economic, and cultural center. Algiers itself is known for its whitewashed colonial-era buildings climbing the hillside above the harbor, a look that earned it the nickname 'Alger la Blanche,' or 'Algiers the White,' among French colonists. The airport's international routes lean heavily toward France, reflecting the deep and often complicated historical ties between Algeria and its former colonial power, alongside the large Algerian diaspora living there. Domestic routes from Algiers reach the country's other major cities across Africa's geographically largest nation. As the primary gateway to North Africa's most populous French-speaking nation, ALG handles a volume and diversity of traffic that no other Algerian airport approaches.