Kuwait International Airport
| Kuwait International Airport مطار الكويت الدولي |
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IATA: KWI – ICAO: OKBK
 KWI
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| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Military/Public | ||
| Operator | Directorate General of Civil Aviation | ||
| Serves | Kuwait City, Kuwait | ||
| Location | Al Farwaniyah Governorate, Kuwait | ||
| Hub for | |||
| Elevation AMSL | 206 ft / 63 m | ||
| Coordinates | 29°13′36.4″N 47°58′47.9″E / 29.226778°N 47.979972°E | ||
| Website | |||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| ft | m | ||
| 15R/33L | 11,155 | 3,400 | Concrete |
| 15L/33R | 11,483 | 3,500 | Asphalt |
Kuwait International Airport (IATA: KWI, ICAO: OKBK) is located in Farwaniyah, Kuwait, 15.5 kilometers (9.6 mi) south of Kuwait City. It serves as hub for Jazeera Airways and Kuwait Airways. A portion of the airport complex is designated as Al Mubarak Air Base, which contains the headquarters of the Kuwait Air Force, as well as the Kuwait Air Force Museum.
Contents |
[edit] Structure
The airport underwent a massive renovation and expansion project from 1999–2001, in which the former parking lot was cleared and a terminal expansion was built. This incorporated new check-in areas, a new entrance to the airport, the construction of a multi-storey parking structure, and an airport mall.
Kuwait International Airport can currently handle more than seven million passengers a year. A new general aviation terminal was completed in 2008 under a BOT scheme and is operated by Royal Aviation. By the end of 2008, however, this terminal was modified to handle the scheduled services of now-defunct Wataniya Airways along with general aviation traffic. The terminal was renamed as Sheikh Saad Terminal.
On October 3, 2011, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation announced that a new Foster + Partners-designed terminal will begin construction in 2012 and will increase the annual passenger handling amount to 13 million passengers in its first phase with the option of expanding to 25 million passengers. The airport has finalized formalities for the construction of the terminal, which is due to begin construction in 2012 with completion by 2016. It would be built to the south of the current terminal complex with new access routes from the Seventh Ring Road to the south of the airport compound. It is designed as a three-pointed star, with each point extending 600 meters from the star's center. Two airside hotels will form part of the new building.
The current airport is currently given a rating of three stars by Skytrax's airport grading exercise along with seven other airports.[1]
[edit] Airlines and destinations
[edit] Passenger
| Airlines | Destinations | Terminal |
|---|---|---|
| Air Arabia | Sharjah | 1 |
| Air Arabia Egypt | Alexandria-Borg El Arab, Assiut, Sohag | 1 |
| Air Cairo | Assiut, Sohag | 1 |
| Air India | Ahmedabad, Chennai, Goa, Hyderabad | 1 |
| Air India Express | Kochi, Kozhikode, Mangalore | 1 |
| AlMasria Universal Airlines | Alexandria-El Nouzha, Assiut | 1 |
| Ariana Afghan Airlines | Kabul | 1 |
| Bahrain Air | Bahrain, Beirut | 1 |
| Biman Bangladesh Airlines | Chittagong [ends 25 March 2012], Dhaka | 1 |
| British Airways | London-Heathrow | 1 |
| Bulgaria Air | Seasonal: Bourgas, Sofia, Varna | 1 |
| Bulgarian Air Charter | Seasonal: Varna | GA |
| EgyptAir | Alexandria-Borg El-Arab, Assiut, Cairo, Luxor, Sohag | 1 |
| Emirates | Dubai | 1 |
| Ethiopian Airlines | Addis Ababa | 1 |
| Etihad Airways | Abu Dhabi | 1 |
| flydubai | Dubai | 1 |
| Gryphon Airlines | Baghdad, Kandahar | 1 |
| Gulf Air | Bahrain | 1 |
| Iran Air | Ahwaz, Isfahan, Lar, Mashhad, Shahre Kord, Shiraz | 1 |
| Iran Aseman Airlines | Ahwaz, Lamerd, Mashhad, Shiraz | 1 |
| Jazeera Airways | Aleppo, Alexandria-Borg el Arab, Amman-Queen Alia, Assiut, Bahrain, Beirut, Cairo, Damascus, Deir ez-Zor, Dubai, Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen [resumes 25 March 2012], Jeddah, Luxor, Mashhad, Riyadh, Sharm el-Sheikh [resumes 29 March 2012], Sohag | 1 |
| Jet Airways | Mumbai | 1 |
| KLM | Amsterdam, Bahrain [ends 24 March 2012], Dammam [begins 25 March 2012] | 1 |
| Kuwait Airways | Abu Dhabi, Alexandria-Borg el-Arab, Amman-Queen Alia, Bahrain, Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Beirut, Cairo, Chennai, Colombo, Damascus, Dammam, Delhi, Dhaka, Doha, Dubai, Frankfurt, Geneva, Islamabad, Istanbul-Ataturk, Jakarta-Soekarno-Hatta, Jeddah, Kochi, Kuala Lumpur, London-Heathrow, Madinah, Manila, Mumbai, Muscat, New York-JFK, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Riyadh, Rome-Fiumicino, Sharm El Sheikh, Sohag, Tehran-Imam Khomeini, Thiruvananthapuram | 1 |
| Lufthansa | Frankfurt | 1 |
| Mahan Air | Mashhad | 1 |
| Middle East Airlines | Beirut | 1 |
| Mihin Lanka | Colombo, Dubai | 1 |
| Nas Air | Jeddah, Madinah | 1 |
| Oman Air | Muscat | 1 |
| Pakistan International Airlines | Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Sialkot | 1 |
| Qatar Airways | Doha | 1 |
| RAK Airways | Ras al Khaimah | 1 |
| Royal Jordanian | Amman-Queen Alia | 1 |
| Saudi Arabian Airlines | Jeddah, Madinah, Riyadh | 1 |
| Shaheen Air International | Lahore | 1 |
| Sky Airlines | Seasonal: Antalya | 1 |
| SriLankan Airlines | Colombo, Dubai [ends 25 March 2012][3] | 1 |
| Syrian Air | Aleppo, Damascus, Deir ez-Zor | 1 |
| Tunis Air | Tunis | 1 |
| Turkish Airlines | Istanbul-Atatürk | 1 |
| United Airlines | Bahrain, Washington-Dulles | 1 |
| Yemenia | Sana'a | 1 |
[edit] Cargo
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Air France Cargo | Dubai, Hanoi [Ends 25 March], Hong Kong, Paris-Charles de Gaulle |
| Cargolux | Hanoi [Ends 21 March], Hong Kong, Luxembourg |
| DHL Aviation | Bahrain |
| Ethiopian Airlines | Addis Ababa [Ends 31 January] |
| Falcon Express Cargo Airlines | Bahrain, Dubai, Riyadh |
| Qatar Airways Cargo | Doha |
[edit] Airport statistics
2006-2011[4]
| Year | Commercial Aircraft | Non-Commercial Aircraft | Passengers | Freight (in metric tonnes) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 50,213 | 21,508 | 6,053,094 | 166,292 |
| 2007 | 56,987 | 26,574 | 6,910,309 | 176,203 |
| 2008 | 61,512 | 26,408 | 7,226,345 | 180,090 |
| 2009 | 78,597 | 19,963 | 8,125,747 | 197,213 |
| 2010 | 79,350 | 14,927 | 8,332,857 | 208,295 |
| Jan-Sep 2011 | 53,217 | 9,967 | 6,461,374 | 146,531 |
[edit] Accidents and Incidents
- A Douglas DC-6 belonging to Yemen Airlines was hijacked by one person on 25 August 1973 during a flight from Taiz to Asmara. After making a refueling stop in Djibouti, the aircraft was taken to Kuwait where the hijacker surrendered.[5]
- On 17 December 1973, a terrorist attack on Rome's Fiumicino airport ended by the terrorists hijacking a Lufthansa Boeing 737-100 that was preparing to depart to Munich. The aircraft was taken to Kuwait where the hijackers surrendered one day later.[6]
- A Middle East Airlines Boeing 707 was hijacked by one person during a flight from Beirut to Baghdad on 5 June 1977. The ordeal ended in Kuwait by storming the aircraft and arresting the hijacker.[7]
- Two hijackers demanding money surrendered after hijacking a Kuwait Airways Boeing 737-200 during a flight from Beirut on 24 July 1980.[8]
- On 2 August 1990, British Airways Flight 149 carrying 349 passengers landed at Kuwait International Airport just four hours after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, leading to the capture of the passengers and crew. The Boeing 747-100 aircraft was looted by the Iraqis and destroyed. All passengers and crew were reported safe. A McDonnell Douglas DC-9 belonging to the Kuwait Air Force was also destroyed in the airport. It is believed that during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait many of the planes belonging to Kuwait Airways were stolen from the airport and stored in different locations in Iraq, some of which were later destroyed by allied bombings in 1991.
- A USMC McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II crash-landed at Kuwait International Airport on 25 February 1991 after being hit by ground fire during the Kuwait Liberation War.[9]
- On 10 December 1999, three US military personnel died when a USAF Lockheed C-130 Hercules made a hard emergency landing at Kuwait International Airport after sustaining damage from landing short of the runway at nearby Jaber al-Ahmad Airbase.[10]
[edit] References
- ^ "Airport Star Ranking - 3 Star Airports". Skytrax. 2007. http://www.airlinequality.com/AirportRanking/3-Star.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-30.
- ^ "Kuwait International Airport Timetable". Schedules Section, Air Transport Department, DGCA. 2010-10-26. http://www.kuwait-airport.com.kw/flight/TimeTable.aspx.
- ^ Airlines Summer 2012 International Flight Schedule - Effective 26 March 2012
- ^ "Kuwait International Airport Statistics". Statistics Section, Air Transport Department, DGCA. 2010-10-26. http://www.kuwait-airport.com.kw/Stat/Stat.htm.
- ^ [1], Aviation Safety Network.
- ^ [2], Aviation Safety Network.
- ^ [3], Aviation Safety Network.
- ^ [4], Aviation Safety Network.
- ^ [5], Aviation Safety Network.
- ^ [6], Aviation Safety Network.
[edit] External links
- Kuwait International Airport (official site) (English)
- Airport information for OKBK at World Aero Data. Data current as of October 2006.Source: DAFIF.
- Airport information for OKBK at Great Circle Mapper. Source: DAFIF (effective Oct. 2006).
- Current weather for OKBK at NOAA/NWS
- Accident history for KWI at Aviation Safety Network
