Kufra Airport began as Buma Airfield, built in the 1930s as a minor facility by the Italians. In early
World War II, it provided an air link to
Italian East Africa (
Ethiopia,
Eritrea, and
Italian Somaliland). It was captured by Free French units under General Leclerc on 1 March 1941 along with
Kufra Oasis. Libyan Airlines operated a twice-weekly service from
Benghazi with
Boeing 727-200 for at least ten years prior to its suspension in 2004. For a couple of years leading up to the revolution
Tibesti Airlines (later renamed
Air Libya) operated a twice-weekly Benghasi –
Kufra –
Khartum service with a leased
British Aerospace 146 aircraft.
Air Libya also operated an intermittent weekly direct flight to Tripoli with a Boeing 727-200. In July 2013,
Libyan Airlines re-launched the Benghazi service that was suspended nine years earlier. During the same month a 2010 contract with Italian company Salini Costruttori to upgrade the airport's runway and taxiways (put on hold due to the
2011 civil war) was reactivated, with the works slated to take 20 months. Since the start of the
Sudanese civil war in 2023, Kufra Airport has served as a major supply hub operated by the
United Arab Emirates to support
Rapid Support Forces. In January 2026, the
Libyan National Army announced a one-month closure of the airport for maintenance. The decision came amid a rift in relations between
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. ==Airline and destinations==