King Fahd International Airport
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King Fahd International Airport (Arabic: مطار الملك فهد الدولي) (IATA: DMM, ICAO: OEDF) is located near Dammam, Saudi Arabia. It is the largest airport in the world in terms of area, covering 209.79 km² (81 mi²)[1], surpassing Montréal-Mirabel International Airport (including Montreal-Mirabel's reserved land) and Denver International Airport.
Completed in 1999, King Fahd International Airport is the third major hub in Saudi Arabia after King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah.
The airport mainly serves Dammam, Dhahran, Khobar, Qatif, Ras Tanura, and Jubail.
Troubled history
The airport was completed later than scheduled and at a cost that was significantly over what was budgeted. There were initial operational problems when it opened and it was temporarily shut down. Bad transport links (roads) led many locals to fly via the airport in neighboring Bahrain; the roads have since been improved. Passenger numbers have increased somewhat, but it remains a largely idle (excess capacity) airport. Before its inauguration, King Fahd International Airport had opened one time a year for travel to Mecca, but is now fully operational throughout the year.
Location
The airport, in the Eastern Province of the country, is located in the middle of Qatif Fields and Dammam, But it is located 22 km away from Dammam. It is linked to population areas by two major roads. One of the roads, Abu Hadriyah (Arabic:ابوحدريّة) Highway, serves as the airport's eastern border.
On the airport's southern border, Saudi Aramco occupies an area of 250 km² (97 mi²) which is used for oil drilling and transportation facilities.
Car parking
The total area of the car park is 176,752 m² (1,902,543 ft²), distributed among three covered floors. The parking area accommodates 4,930 cars. Cars enter the car park through a roadway that leads to the second floor. There is direct access to the passenger terminal from the parking on the first floor which lies under the access road with exits leading to the main roads. Parking charges are 1 Saudi Riyal per hour (July 2008).
All parking is characterized by clear roadways and pedestrian directional signs in addition to the lifts that link them directly to the mosque plaza and ablution facility.
Two open parking areas are available beside the rental car parking area to accommodate additional cars.
Passenger areas
Passenger terminal complex
The terminal has six stories of which three are allocated for passenger processing. The third level is for arrivals, the sixth level is for departures, and the fourth level is for boarding. There are two partial levels: the mezzanine service level and the mezzanine level (which is the uppermost level).
The passenger terminal’s total area is 327,000 m² (3,519,798 ft²). Approximately 247,500 m² (2,664,067 ft²) were built in the first phase, in addition to 11 fixed passenger boarding bridges serving 15 gates out of an original design capacity of 31 fixed boarding bridges. The terminal is equipped with several counters of which 66 were allocated to Saudi Arabian Airlines, 44 to foreign airlines and the rest for Customs and Immigration.
Royal Terminal
The Royal Terminal is allocated for the use of the Kingdom’s guests from Kings and Heads of States to senior government officials. The terminal was built on an area of 16,400 m² (176,528 ft²) and has four bridges linking the terminal and aircraft.
The Royal Terminal is luxuriously furnished, and is decorated by fine works of art by well-known Saudi and Arab artists. A landscaped area with beautiful trees and flowers surrounds it on the outside.
Shops and other services
King Fahd International Airport was the first among Saudi Arabia's international airports to adopt duty-free markets. In addition to the spaces allocated to duty-free markets, the airport has a separate area for shops specializing in the sale of gifts and all passenger related goods. This area includes restaurants, cafeterias, and banks, and is located on the arrivals level. The distinction is largely meaningless however as the Kingdom has no sales or import duties on any products.
The mosque
The airport mosque is built on the roof of the car park and in the middle of a landscaped area of 46,200 m² (497,292 ft²). It has an architectural design that combines modern style with the old Islamic style (arches, domes, and other Islamic decorations and carvings on the doors, mihrab, and mimbar). The mosque accommodates two thousand worshipers.
Access to the mosque can be easily gained from the passenger terminal through two enclosed, air-conditioned bridges equipped with moving belts, in addition to a third open bridge.
Statistics
King Fahd International Airport consistently has over 2.5 million passengers per year.[1]
| Year | Total Passengers | Total Cargo (tons) | Total Aircraft Movements |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 2,708,000 | 56,968 | 24,216 |
| 2000 | 2,533,000 | 56,494 | 23,886 |
| 2001 | 2,542,000 | 55,088 | 23,312 |
| 2002 | 2,578,000 | 53,029 | 23,281 |
| 2003 | 2,613,000 | 48,634 | 23,308 |
| 2004 | 2,782,000 | 48,063 | 23,776 |
Airlines and destinations
The following airlines have scheduled services to King Fahd International Airport:
- Air Arabia (Sharjah)
- Air India (Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kozhikode, Mumbai, Trivandrum,Mangalore)
- BMI (London-Heathrow)
- Biman Bangladesh Airlines (Dhaka)
- EgyptAir (Alexandria, Cairo)
- Emirates (Dubai)
- Etihad Airways (Abu Dhabi)
- Gulf Air (Bahrain, Kathmandu, Muscat)
- KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (Amsterdam, Doha)
- Kuwait Airways (Kuwait)
- Lufthansa (Doha, Dubai, Frankfurt, Kuwait)
- Mahan Air (Mashhad, Tehran-Imam Khomeini) seasonal
- Middle East Airlines (Beirut)
- Pakistan International Airlines (Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore)
- Qatar Airways (Doha)
- Royal Jordanian (Amman, Muscat)
- Sama Airlines (Abha, Abu Dhabi, Alexandria, Bishah, Damascus, Gizan, Hail, Jeddah, Madinah, Riyadh, Sharjah)
- Saudi Arabian Airlines (Abha, Al-Baha, Bisha, Cairo, Colombo, Chennai, Dhaka, Delhi, Dubai, Gassim, Hail, Islamabad, Jeddah, Jizan, Karachi, Kochi, Lahore, London-Heathrow, Madinah, Manila, Mumbai, Nejran, Qaisumah, Riyadh, Tabuk, Taif)
- SriLankan Airlines (Colombo)
- Syrian Arab Airlines (Damascus, Karachi)
Cargo Airlines
Runways
The airport has two parallel runways with a length of 4,000 meters (13,124 feet) each, in addition to taxiways parallel to the runways. A distance of 2,146 meters (7,040 feet) separates the two runways to facilitate simultaneous takeoff and landing operations. Space has been set aside for the construction of a third parallel runway.
A road for ground support equipment (GSE) runs along the western side of the central terminal. It is designed to allow GSE to have access to aircraft and also to facilitate the movement of baggage vehicles from aircraft to baggage areas.
Operations Services
There are ten main Operations Services areas providing facilities for the operation of the airport. There is a main offices.
Cargo
The two-story air cargo building is constructed on an area of 39,500 m² (425,174 ft²) and has a capacity of 94,000 metric tons (103,617 tons) of incoming and outgoing cargo.
The terminal’s design allows for transforming the operation system to a fully automatic system equipped with multi-level racks and a container stacking system. When the air cargo facility becomes fully automatic, its capacity will be increased to 176,000 metric tons (194,007 tons) per year.
Control Tower
The control tower stands 85.5 meters (281 feet) high, equivalent to the height of a 30-story building. The height allows visibility of all parts of the airport operations area. Its total floor area is 7,960 m² (85,681 ft²), and it contains the following three main sections:
- Air traffic control level
- Mezzanine level one, which accommodates support equipment for traffic control and communication
- Mezzanine level two, allocated for a kitchen and toilets
Saudi Aramco facilities
Saudi Aramco is responsible for supplying fuel and maintaining fuel installations. These fuel installations include six large tanks with a capacity of 40,000 barrels each, in addition to pumping equipment, filters, loading stations, and the distribution valve network.
In addition, an advanced fleet of fuel tankers provides fueling services to all types of commercial aircraft. This facility is operated and maintained by a team of qualified Saudi personnel who were trained abroad on the most modern systems and technologies in this field.
Food preparation and Catering Building
This building is a 17,287 m² (186,075 ft²), single-story in-flight catering facility, capable of producing 8,000 aircraft meals a day plus 1,000 meals for staff and 300 for the Royal Pavilion kitchen.
Nursery and landscaping
King Fahd International Airport has its own nursery with a total area of 215,579 m² (2,320,473 ft²) which encompasses three green houses and 36,400 m² (391,806 ft²) of green fields. The nursery supplies the airport gardens and planted areas with trees and plants.