King Abdulaziz International Airport

King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA) (Arabic: مطار الملك عبدالعزيز الدولي‎) (IATA: JED, ICAO: OEJN) is an airport located 19 km to the north of Jeddah. Named after King Abdulaziz Al Saud and inaugurated in 1981, the airport is the busiest airport of Saudi Arabia and the third-largest airport in the kingdom. The airport is known for its Hajj terminal, which is specially built for Muslim pilgrims going to Mecca annually and can handle 80,000 passengers at the same time.

Description

The airport occupies an area of 15 square kilometres (5.8 square miles). Beside the airport proper, this includes a royal terminal, facilities of Prince Abdullah Air Base for the Royal Saudi Air Force, and housing for airport staff. Construction work on KAIA airport began in 1974, and was finalized in 1980. Finally, on 31 May 1981, the airport opened for service after being officially inaugurated in April 1981.

Facilities

Hajj Terminal

Because of Jeddah's proximity to Islam's holy city of Mecca, the airport is notable for one feature in particular: The Hajj Terminal. Specially built to handle pilgrims to take part in the rituals associated with the annual Hajj, it offers many facilities and can accommodate 80,000 travelers at the same time.

Designed by the Bangladeshi-American engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), it is known for its tent-like roof structure, engineered by Horst Berger while part of Geiger Berger Associates. Ten modules, each consisting of 21 "tents" of white colored Teflon-coated fiberglass fabric suspended from pylons, are grouped together into two blocks of five modules and separated by a landscaped mall between the blocks. Only customs, baggage handling and similar facilities are located in an air-conditioned building. The vast majority of the complex, called "Terminal Support Area", is a flexible, open area, conceived to function like a village, complete with souk (market) and mosque. Not enclosed by walls, this area is sheltered from the intense sun while allowing for natural ventilation; because of this, some consider it to be a green, environmentally-friendly building.

The Hajj Terminal received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1983. According to the jury, "the brilliant and imaginative design of the roofing system met the awesome challenge of covering this vast space with incomparable elegance and beauty."

At five million square feet (460,000 m2), the Jeddah airport Hajj Terminal is estimated to be among the world's largest air terminals after Beijing Capital International Airport, Dubai International Airport and Hong Kong International Airport. Many airlines from Muslim and non-Muslim countries have used the Hajj Terminal.

Other terminals

Jeddah-KAIA airport serves as a major hub for Saudia who originally had the exclusive use of the South Terminal. In 2007 however, the privately owned Saudi carriers Flynas and Sama Airlines were also given permission to use it. Due to the closure of Sama Airlines, the terminal was only used by Saudia and Flynas. The terminal is now also used by Flyadeal, Garuda Indonesia, Kenya Airways, and Korean Air. The North Terminal at Jeddah airport is used by all other foreign airlines.

Expansion project

The new King Abdulaziz International Airport three-stage development started in 2006, and is currently scheduled for an official opening on 1 January 2019 . However, from 2018 a number of local flightes have been started to land in the airport. The project is designed to increase the airport's yearly capacity from 13 million to 80 million passengers.[]

The expansion includes brand-new passenger terminal building, a 136 meter air traffic control (ATC) tower(the world's largest atc tower), airfield hard-standing and paved areas, lighting, fuel network systems, electronic passenger guidance system and storm water drainage network. There will also be a newly constructed support services building and upgrades to the existing runway and airfield systems. The three stages, according to GACA—the General Authority of Civil Aviation of Saudi Arabia, will be marked by staged capacity increase to 30 million, 60 million and 80 million passengers per year.

The new airport will be accessed by the Haramain high-speed rail project network. Prince Majed Street will connect to the Al-Laith Highway, forming a fast north-south transit route.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Airlines Destinations
Aegean Airlines Athens
Afriqiyah Airways Tripoli
Seasonal: Bayda, Benghazi
Air Algérie Algiers
Air Arabia Ras al Khaimah, Sharjah
Air Arabia Egypt Alexandria–Borg el Arab, Assiut (begins 14 March 2019), Sohag
Air Cairo Alexandria–Borg el Arab, Assiut, Cairo, Sohag
Air China Hajj: Ürümqi
AirAsia X Seasonal: Kuala Lumpur–International
Airblue Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Multan
Air India Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Lucknow, Mumbai
AlMasria Universal Airlines Alexandria–Borg el Arab
Ariana Afghan Airlines Kabul, Kandahar
AtlasGlobal Ankara, Istanbul–Atatürk
Seasonal: Istanbul–Sabiha Gökçen
Hajj: Sarajevo
Azerbaijan Airlines Seasonal charter: Baku
Biman Bangladesh Airlines Chittagong, Dhaka
Hajj: Sylhet
British Airways London–Heathrow
Cairo Aviation Cairo
Citilink Seasonal: Medan, Surabaya
Daallo Airlines Hargeisa, Mogadishu
Eaglexpress Seasonal: Kuala Lumpur–International, Surabaya
EgyptAir Alexandria–Borg el Arab, Cairo, Luxor
EgyptAir Express Seasonal: Sharm El Sheikh
Emirates Dubai–International
Eritrean Airlines Asmara
Ethiopian Airlines Addis Ababa
Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi
Flyadeal Abha, Dammam, Qassim, Riyadh, Tabuk
flydubai Dubai–International
FlyEgypt Alexandria–Borg el Arab, Sohag
Flynas Abu Dhabi, Adana, Algiers, Amman–Queen Alia, Baghdad, Beirut, Dammam, Dubai–International, Erbil, Hatay, Istanbul–Sabiha Gökçen, Jizan, Kano, Khartoum, Kuwait, Medina, Riyadh, Sharjah, Sharm El Sheikh, Tabuk, Yanbu
Seasonal: Tbilisi
Charter: Jakarta-Soekarno Hatta, Kuala Lumpur–International
Garuda Indonesia Jakarta–Soekarno–Hatta
Seasonal: Balikpapan, Banda Aceh, Makassar, Medan, Padang, Surakarta/Solo, Surabaya
Hajj: Banjarmasin, Palembang
Gulf Air Bahrain
Iran Air Hajj: Bandar Abbas, Birjand, Bushehr, Goragan, Isfahan, Medina, Rasht, Shiraz, Urmia, Zahedan
Iraqi Airways Charter: Baghdad, Basra, Erbil, Najaf, Sulaimaniyah
Jazeera Airways Kuwait City
Jet Airways Mumbai
Jet2.com Hajj: Leeds/Bradford, Manchester
Jubba Airways Hargeisa, Mogadishu
Kabo Air Hajj: Abuja, Kano
Kam Air Kabul, Kandahar
Kuwait Airways Kuwait City
Libyan Airlines Seasonal: Benghazi, Tripoli
Libyan Wings Charter: Tripoli
Lion Air Seasonal: Balikpapan1, Banda Aceh1, Makassar, Padang1, Palembang1, Pekanbaru1, Solo, Surabaya
Lufthansa Frankfurt
Malaysia Airlines Kuala Lumpur–International
Hajj: Alor Setar, Johor Bahru, Kuala Terengganu, Penang
Max Air Hajj: Kano
Middle East Airlines Beirut
Nesma Airlines Ha'il
Nile Air Alexandria–Borg el Arab, Assiut, Aswan, Cairo, Luxor, Sohag
Nordwind Airlines Moscow–Sheremetyevo
Oman Air Muscat, Salalah
Pakistan International Airlines Faisalabad, Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Peshawar, Sialkot
Hajj: Rahim Yar Khan, Quetta, Bahawalpur
Palestinian Airlines El Arish
Qeshm Airlines Hajj: Tehran–Imam Khomeini
Royal Air Maroc Casablanca
Hajj: Rabat, Tangier
Royal Brunei Airlines Seasonal: Bandar Seri Begawan
Royal Falcon Amman-Marka
Royal Jordanian Amman–Queen Alia
SalamAir Muscat, Salalah
Saudia Abha, Abu Dhabi, Addis Ababa, Al Ahsa, Al Baha, Al Jawf, Al Ula, Al Wajh, Alexandria–Borg el Arab, Algiers, Amman–Queen Alia, Ankara, Arar, Baghdad, Bahrain, Bengaluru, Beirut, Bisha, Cairo, Casablanca, Chennai, Colombo, Dammam, Dawadmi, Delhi, Dhaka, Dubai–International, Erbil, Frankfurt, Geneva, Guangzhou, Gurayat, Ha'il, Hyderabad, Islamabad, Istanbul–Atatürk, Jizan, Kano, Jakarta-Soekarno Hatta, Johannesburg–O.R. Tambo, Karachi, Khartoum, Kochi, Kozhikode, Kuala Lumpur–International, Kuwait, Lahore, London–Heathrow, Los Angeles, Lucknow, Madrid, Malè, Manchester, Manila, Mauritius, Medan, Medina, Milan–Malpensa, Multan, Mumbai, Munich, Nairobi–Jomo Kenyatta, Najran, New York–JFK, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Port Sudan, Qaisumah, Qassim, Rafha, Riyadh, Rome–Fiumicino, Sharm El Sheikh, Sharurah, Singapore, Tabuk, Ta'if, Tunis, Turaif, Vienna, Wadi al-Dawasir, Washington–Dulles
Seasonal: Adana, Agadir, Ahwaz, Ahmedabad, Annaba, Batam, Constantine, Fes, Ghardaïa, Izmir, Málaga, Marrakech, Mashhad, Oran, Rabat, Surabaya, Tabriz, Tangier
SaudiGulf Airlines Dammam
Scoot Singapore
SpiceJet Hyderabad (begins 25 March 2019), Kozhikode (begins 20 April 2019)
SriLankan Airlines Colombo
Sudan Airways Khartoum
Syrian Air Hajj: Damascus
Thai Airways Hajj: Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Narathiwat, Krabi, Hat Yai
Tarco Airlines Khartoum
Toumaï Air Tchad Seasonal: N'Djamena1
Tunisair Tunis
Turkish Airlines Istanbul–Atatürk, Istanbul–Sabiha Gökçen
Hajj: Adana, Ankara, Antalya, Bursa, Denizli, Diyarbakır, Erzurum, Gaziantep, Isparta, Izmir, Kayseri, Konya, Samsun, Sivas, Trabzon, Van
UTair Aviation Hajj: Magas, Kazan
Uzbekistan Airways Tashkent
Yemenia Aden

Cargo

Airlines Destinations
Air France Cargo Dammam, Hong Kong, Paris–Charles de Gaulle
DHL International Aviation ME Bahrain
Ethiopian Airlines Cargo Addis Ababa
Lufthansa Cargo Frankfurt, Sharjah
Qatar Airways Cargo Doha (suspended)
Saudia Cargo Addis Ababa, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dammam, Dhaka, Frankfurt, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Johannesburg-OR Tambo, Khartoum,Kozhikode, Maastricht, Lagos, Lucknow, Milan–Malpensa, Mumbai, Nairobi–Jomo Kenyatta, New York–JFK, N'Djamena, Riyadh, Shanghai–Pudong, Sharjah
Turkish Airlines Cargo Cairo, Istanbul–Atatürk

Other facilities

The General Authority of Civil Aviation has the GACA Hangar (Building 364) at the airport.

Accidents and incidents

  • On 25 September 1959, a Saudia Douglas DC-4/C-54A-5-DO (registration HZ-AAF), performed a belly landing shortly after take-off from the old Jeddah Airport (OEJD). The cause of the accident were gust locks not deactivated by the mechanic, followed by a stall. All 67 passengers and five crew survived.
  • On 11 July 1991, Nigeria Airways Flight 2120, a Douglas DC-8-61, suffered cabin pressure problems followed by a fire due to a failed landing gear. The pilots tried to return to the airport but failed to reach the airport as the plane crashed killing all 247 passengers and 14 crew.
  • On 1 March 2004, PIA Flight 2002, an Airbus A300B4-200, burst 2 tires whilst taking off from King Abdulaziz International Airport. Fragments of the tire were ingested by the engines, this caused the engines to catch fire and an aborted takeoff was performed. Due to substantial damage to the engine and the left wing, the aircraft was written off. All 261 passengers and 12 crew survived.
  • on 21 May 2018, an Onur Air leased Airbus A330-200 (reg TC-OCH), operating as flight 3818 from Medina to Dhaka, was diverted to Jeddah after suffering a malfunction with the nose landing gear. It was forced to make a landing with no nose gear,the remaining gear did not.collapse. No injuries were reported.

See also

  • Haramain high-speed rail project
  • List of things named after Saudi kings

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

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Tips & Hints
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A Fahad
3 April 2014
More space, delicious local and international cousins during meal times and assorted nice appetisers and sandwiches all the time. Soups are my favorite here.
Wajd AlMehdar
7 September 2018
I’m so glad that I had the chance to work here! One of my best places ever! Or it’s the best! ILoveYouKAIA
ф.V????P.ф
2 January 2023
✈️ great service ✅ welcoming staff ✅ you will never get lost they are always their to help you ✅ very organized ✅✈️
Khaled Ben
18 July 2016
Hopefully don't need 2 use wat they write n pic coz Sharks gonna be waiting 4 us .. Gd bless u all of ppl n Jed they r very kind & lovely specially the mermaid girls .. Cya
Abdullah Alhamoud
11 September 2016
Always come early during high seasons, the airport is running above its capacity 5 times at least. Hopefully the new airport doesn't take long to finish.
Mohammed Abu Hajar
9 August 2016
Make sure if you are flying early to pick up ur newspaper as you will not find till 1 pm on ur flight
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