 The airport is named for the historic city of Carthage, located just east of the airport.The history of the airport dates back to 1920 when the first seaplane base in Tunisia was built on the Lake of Tunis for the seaplanes of Compagnie Aéronavale.The Tunis Airfield opened in 1938, serving around 5,800 passengers annually on the Paris-Tunis route.