Airports › Sanaa

Sanaa Approach Control

OYSN / SAH — Yemen

Sanaa (OYSN / SAH) is one of the real-world terminal areas you can control in the free ATC Radar Simulator. Its approach (APP) airspace — centred near 15°28.6'N 44°13.2'E in Yemen — is modelled with real runways, radio navaids and instrument procedures. As the approach controller you sequence arriving traffic onto the ILS approach, launch departures on their standard instrument departures, and keep every flight safely separated on the radar.

Sana’a International sits more than 7,000 ft above sea level, ringed by the rugged mountains of the Yemeni highlands. The high elevation and surrounding terrain make climb and descent planning genuinely demanding.

Sana’a sits at 7,200 feet — among the highest international airports in the Arab world — ringed by peaks that climb well above 10,000 feet. Thin air means true airspeeds and ground speeds run high, turn radii widen, and climb performance suffers, so procedures lean on the overhead SAA VOR and a handful of mountain-gap corridors in and out of the bowl.

Runways

Runways 18, 36 are equipped with an ILS (Instrument Landing System) — a localizer for lateral guidance and a glideslope for the descent path down to the threshold. In the simulator you turn arrivals onto the extended centreline, clear them for the approach, and watch them capture the localizer and glideslope automatically.

Radio navaids

VOR/DME: SAA

Standard arrivals (STARs)

Standard departures (SIDs)

The terminal airspace

• Transition level: FL150 — below it aircraft fly altitudes on the local QNH; at or above it they fly standard flight levels.
• Upper limit: FL160 — overflights cross the sector below this level.
• The terminal control area (TMA) extends roughly 40 NM around the field.
• Entry / exit fixes on the boundary: SAAASREMRAKIDITOLIOBNAMPAVENMISANNAGILIMKARXABIPTMAMUTABLUDOXRAMLO

How to control Sanaa in the simulator

Sana’a demands respect for altitude: minimum vectoring levels sit far higher than at sea-level fields, descent planning starts early, and the thin air makes every turn wider than it looks. Keep arrivals high until established inbound through the gaps, and never let a climb-out drift toward the ridgelines.

Pick Sanaa when you start a session, then double-click an aircraft's data block to assume it. Give it radar headings, climb or descend it to a level and control its speed to build an orderly stream toward the runway. Turn arrivals onto final, clear them for the ILS, and keep at least 3 NM and 1,000 ft between aircraft — the short-term conflict alert (STCA) warns you before a loss of separation. New to it? Read the guide to approach radar control and the ATC glossary first.