Diego Garcia Naval Support Facility

Diego Garcia Naval Support Facility (NKW) is a medium airport in Diego Garcia, U-A, British Indian Ocean Territory. It carries the IATA code NKW. It sits in Asia.

Diego Garcia Naval Support Facility is a regional airport primarily serving general aviation, charter, and corporate flight departments. The 12,004-foot runway means it is well-suited as a dedicated bizjet field, free from airline scheduling pressure.

The longest runway measures 12,004 ft (3,659 m), a ultra-long-range-class field. Representative aircraft that operate comfortably here include the Gulfstream G650, Bombardier Global 7500, and Dassault Falcon 8X. In practice this transcontinental and transoceanic operations without performance penalties.

Diego Garcia Naval Support Facility sits near sea level at 9 ft.

Local operations run on Indian/Chagos. Without scheduled airline traffic, the field tends to be quieter and more flexible for charter and corporate operations — a useful characteristic for early morning, late night, or short-notice flights that would be impractical at a hub.

SkyAccess inventory for NKW updates continuously as operators publish new empty legs and one-way repositioning trips. Pricing on each leg is available with a free account, and an inventory alert will email you the moment a leg appears on the route you care about.

Use this page to compare NKW against nearby alternatives, browse live empty-leg pricing in both directions, and brief yourself on the runway and elevation profile before you book.

Diego Garcia is the largest island of the Chagos Archipelago. It has been used as a joint UK–U.S. military base since the 1970s, following the expulsion of the Chagossians by the UK government. The Chagos Islands are a British overseas territory, though a treaty to transfer sovereignty from the UK to Mauritius was signed on 22 May 2025, with a provision that the military base at the island would remain under British control for at least 99 years. The agreement may be renewed for an additional 40 years after the initial 99-year period, and for an additional period thereafter. The UK government expected the treaty to be ratified sometime in 2026. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has expressed "deep concern" at the terms of the deal.