ELS

King Phalo Airport

ICAO FAEL33.0356°S 27.8259°E133 m / 435 ftLarge airport
On the map

King Phalo Airport (IATA: ELS, ICAO: FAEL) is a large airport in East London, Eastern Cape, South Africa. It opened in 1944. It has 2 runways; the longest is 1,939 m (6,362 ft). It is operated by Airports Company South Africa. In 2012 it handled 663 thousand passengers.

Timeline

1 event · 1944–1944
1944
OpenedKing Phalo Airport opens.
From Wikidata and WikipediaEvery airfield, 1903–2026

Runways & airfield

Schematic · N · © OpenStreetMap
11/29082° / 262° · LIT
LENGTH1,939 m6,362 ftWIDTH46 m150 ftSURFACEAsphalt
06/24037° / 217° · LIT
LENGTH1,585 m5,200 ftWIDTH46 m150 ftSURFACEAsphalt

Passengers per year

2011–2012
682K
663K
1112

Routes

4 destinations · 1 country
Most destinationsFlySafair 4CemAir 2Airlink 1BidAir Cargo 1

Straight lines are great circles; rings mark true distance from ELS. Blue: cargo. From the Wikipedia article “King Phalo Airport” (revision of 26 Aug 2026), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Records & rankings

Ranked among 48,011 open airports · world · region · country
Passengers663K (2012)1 · FEWER1 · FEWERMEDIAN · 64KMEDIAN · 64KMORE · 103MMORE · 103M#988of 3,974 · #62 Africa · #6 ZALongest runway1,939 m6,362 ft46 m · SHORT150 ft · SHORTMEDIAN · 975 mMEDIAN · 3,200 ftLONG · 5,300 mLONG · 17,388 ft=4,208of 29,823 · #472 Africa · #27 ZAElevation133 m435 ft-386 m · LOW-1,266 ft · LOWMEDIAN · 240 mMEDIAN · 787 ftHIGH · 4,938 mHIGH · 16,200 ft=28,316of 43,341 · #2,621 Africa · #461 ZAAgeOpened 19442026 · NEWEST2026 · NEWESTMEDIAN · 1976MEDIAN · 1976OLDEST · 1902OLDEST · 1902=2,300of 15,079 · #40 Africa · #5 ZARunways21 · FEWER1 · FEWERMEDIAN · 1MEDIAN · 1MORE · 8MORE · 8=713of 29,943 · =24 Africa · =13 ZA
Scale: share of airports ranked below, best on the right · ties shown as = and a band · passengers are each airport’s latest year on record

Radio frequencies

4 channels
APPAPP120.100
ATISATIS126.450
GTEAPRON122.650
TWRTWR118.300