Dar es Salaam airport, Julius Nyerere International Airport and "Dar airport" are three names for one place: the international airport of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's largest city, coded DAR on your ticket and HTDA in air traffic control (Wikipedia, "Julius Nyerere International Airport," captured 2026-09-27). If you searched for any of them, you are in the right place. The two things that trip people up are the names and the terminals, so this guide takes them in that order.
One airport, several names
The airport was originally called Dar es Salaam International Airport. In October 2005 it was renamed Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere International Airport, and on 1 November 2006 the name was shortened to the one on the signs today, Julius Nyerere International Airport (Wikipedia, "Julius Nyerere International Airport," captured 2026-09-27). Julius Nyerere (1922 to 1999) was the country's first president, which is why his name, not the city's, is on the building.
That leaves a traveller with a handful of labels that all point to the same runway:
- Julius Nyerere International Airport, the official English name.
- JNIA, the short form the operator, the Tanzania Airports Authority, uses in its own news items (Tanzania Airports Authority, captured 2026-09-27).
- Kiwanja cha Ndege cha Kimataifa cha Julius Nyerere, the Swahili name on the same authority's website.
- Dar es Salaam International Airport or DIA, the pre-2005 name that still turns up in older guidebooks.
- DAR, the IATA code on boarding passes and bag tags, and HTDA, the ICAO code pilots and controllers use.
If an itinerary, a taxi app and a hotel confirmation each use a different one of these, nothing is wrong. They are the same airport.
Where it is
The airport sits in Kipawa ward of Ilala District, about 12 km from Dar es Salaam city (Airport Technology, "Julius Nyerere International Airport," captured 2026-09-27; Wikipedia, captured 2026-09-27). It has two asphalt runways: 05/23 at 3,000 m and the shorter 14/32 at 1,000 m (Airport Technology, captured 2026-09-27).
The hub carriers are Air Tanzania, the national airline, and Precision Air (Wikipedia, captured 2026-09-27). The airport handled 2,887,382 passengers in 2024, per the same page.
Terminal 1, 2 and 3: which one you need
This is the part that matters on the day. Julius Nyerere International runs three terminals, and they do different jobs (Wikipedia, "Julius Nyerere International Airport," captured 2026-09-27):
| Terminal | What it handles |
|---|---|
| Terminal 1 | Private, charter and small aircraft; a VIP terminal was added in January 2026 |
| Terminal 2 | Domestic and regional scheduled flights |
| Terminal 3 | International flights; the newest building |
Terminal 3 was opened on 1 August 2019 by President John Magufuli (TanzaniaInvest, captured 2026-09-27; The Citizen, captured 2026-09-27). Before it opened, Terminal 2 handled both international and domestic flights, which is why profiles written before 2019 describe a different layout (Airport Technology, captured 2026-09-27).
Two practical points follow from that table. First, "international" and "regional" are not the same word: Terminal 2's description covers regional scheduled flights as well as domestic ones, so a short hop to a neighbouring country may not be a Terminal 3 departure. Second, charter and small-aircraft flights use Terminal 1, not the main passenger buildings. In every case the airline's own booking confirmation or check-in message is the document that settles which terminal you need; read it rather than assuming from the destination.
Meeting someone at Dar es Salaam arrivals
Dar es Salaam arrivals are split the same way as departures. Someone landing from outside the region will usually come out of Terminal 3; someone on a domestic flight from another Tanzanian airport will come out of Terminal 2. Before you leave for the airport, check three things with the traveller or the airline: the flight number, the terminal it is listed for, and whether the scheduled time has moved.
The scheduled time is a plan; the estimated arrival is the airline's current best guess and the more useful number once the aircraft is in the air. Build in time for immigration and bags on an international arrival, which takes longer than a domestic walk-out.
How a flight tracker sees a flight into DAR
A useful thing to understand before you watch a dot on a map is ADS-B. An aircraft works out its own position from satellite navigation and periodically broadcasts it with related flight data, and receivers on the ground pick those broadcasts up (Wikipedia, "Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast," captured 2026-09-27). A ground receiver can only hear aircraft within its radio range, so coverage from ground receivers is dense over land near populated receiver networks and thin to absent over open ocean, beyond the range of any ground station.
For someone waiting in Dar es Salaam, that means the position shown for an inbound flight is only as current as the last receiver that heard it. On any map, a flight that seems to pause mid-journey has usually just flown out of range of the receivers feeding that map. The airline's own status for the flight number is the reference for timing.
How TrackMyWings helps
TrackMyWings™ is a live flight-tracking platform in development, India-first in go-to-market. A private beta has been running on the Android Play internal testing track since 2026-08-24, and there is no public launch date yet. Gate and status alerts and a shared family view are planned for launch, aimed at exactly the person who will be standing outside Terminal 3 wondering whether to buy another coffee. Our live flight tracking feature page describes that plan. Meanwhile the directory pages for Julius Nyerere International, the wider list of airports in Tanzania, Zanzibar's Abeid Amani Karume International and Kilimanjaro International list each airport's name next to its codes.
Questions people ask
Is Dar es Salaam airport the same as Julius Nyerere International Airport? Yes. Julius Nyerere International Airport is the official name of Dar es Salaam's international airport, code DAR. It was called Dar es Salaam International Airport until 2005.
Which terminal is for international flights at Dar es Salaam? Terminal 3, opened in August 2019. Terminal 2 handles domestic and regional scheduled flights, and Terminal 1 handles private, charter and small aircraft. Confirm with your airline, since regional flights can sit in Terminal 2.
What does DAR stand for? It is the IATA airport code for Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam. Its ICAO code, used by pilots and controllers, is HTDA.
How far is Dar es Salaam airport from the city centre? About 12 km, per Airport Technology's airport profile. Allow for traffic when timing a pickup.
What are Tanzania's other international airports? Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO), in Hai District, and Abeid Amani Karume International Airport (ZNZ) on Unguja Island, Zanzibar (Wikipedia, "List of airports in Tanzania," captured 2026-09-27).
Sources
- Wikipedia, "Julius Nyerere International Airport," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Nyerere_International_Airport, captured 2026-09-27
- Airport Technology, "Julius Nyerere International Airport," https://www.airport-technology.com/projects/julius-nyerere-international-airport/, captured 2026-09-27
- TanzaniaInvest, "Dar es Salaam Airport Inaugurate New Terminal 3," https://www.tanzaniainvest.com/transport/dar-es-salaam-airport-jnia-terminal-3-inauguration, captured 2026-09-27
- The Citizen, "President Magufuli opens Terminal 3 building at Julius Nyerere International Airport," https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/news/1840340-5219028-98x851/index.html, captured 2026-09-27
- Tanzania Airports Authority, home page, https://www.taa.go.tz/, captured 2026-09-27
- Wikipedia, "List of airports in Tanzania," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airports_in_Tanzania, captured 2026-09-27
- Wikipedia, "Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADS-B, captured 2026-09-27
Get TrackMyWings Early Access
Real-time flight tracking, gate change alerts, and family sharing: launching soon.