Sharjah International Airport
Sharjah International Airport مطار الشارقة الدولي | |||||||||||
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| File:Sharjah IA Logo.png | |||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Military/Public | ||||||||||
| Operator | Sharjah International Airport | ||||||||||
| Location | Sharjah | ||||||||||
| Hub for | |||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 111 ft / 34 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 25°19′43″N 055°31′02″E / 25.32861°N 55.51722°E | ||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||
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Sharjah International Airport (Arabic: مطار الشارقة الدولي) (IATA: SHJ, ICAO: OMSJ) is located in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
It is an important cargo airport and home base of the low-cost carrier Air Arabia.
It is also one of the largest ingress points for Afghan heroin transported by air. [1] [2]
History
During World War II, the airport was used by the United States Army Air Force Air Transport Command. It functioned as a stopover en-route to Bahrain International Airport, Bahrain or Jiwani Airport, Pakistan on the Karachi-Cairo route.[3]
The airport was also used by the United States Air Force 926th Tactical Fighter Group during Operation Desert Shield/Storm[4]. Approximately 450 members of the unit were stationed at the airport, which flew A-10 Thunderbolt II ground attack aircraft during the conflict in late 1990 and early 1991.
Airlines and destinations
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Aerovista | ? |
| African Express Airways | Aden, Berbera, Nairobi, Mogadishu |
| Air Arabia | Ahmedabad, Aleppo, Alexandria-El Nouzha, Almaty, Amman, Assiut, Athens, Bahrain, Bangalore, Beirut, Calicut, Chennai, Chittagong, Cochin, Coimbatore, Colombo, Damascus, Dammam, Delhi, Dhaka, Doha, Goa, Hyderabad, Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen, Jaipur, Jeddah, Karachi, Kathmandu, Khartoum, Kuwait, Kiev-Boryspil, Latakia, Luxor, Mumbai, Muscat, Nairobi, Nagpur, Peshawar, Riyadh, Samara [begins 26 October][5], Sana'a, Tehran-Imam Khomeini, Trivandrum |
| Air Blue | Islamabad, Lahore |
| Air-India Express | Calicut, Cochin, Trivandrum |
| Airwest | Kabul, Khartoum |
| Anikay Air | Bishkek |
| Aria Tour | Bandar Abbas |
| AVE.com | Chelyabinsk, Samara |
| Click Airways | Baghdad |
| Dagestan Airlines | Makhachkala |
| Djibouti Airlines | Djibouti |
| EgyptAir | Cairo |
| Elbrus Avia | Nalchik |
| Imtrec Aviation | Kabul |
| Indian Airlines | Amritsar (last flight on 31st Oct), Calicut, Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Hyderabad (last flight on 31st Oct), Lucknow (last flight on 31st Oct), Trichy, Trivandrum |
| Jet Airways | Cochin |
| Jubba Airways | Mogadishu |
| Jupiter Airlines | ? |
| Kam Air | Kabul |
| Kish Air | Bandar Abbas, Kish Island |
| Kuban Airlines | Krasnodar |
| Luxor Air | Alexandria-Borg el Arab |
| Mark Air | Karaganda |
| Nas Air (Saudi Arabia) | Jeddah, Medina, Riyadh |
| Orbit Aviation | Gwadar, Turbat |
| Pakistan International Airlines | Turbat |
| Pluto Airlines | ? |
| Royal Falcon | Amman |
| Saudi Arabian Airlines | Jeddah, Medina, Muscat |
| Shaheen Air International | Peshawar, Sialkot |
| Starline.kz | Shymkent |
| Sudan Airways | Khartoum |
| Sudanese State Aviation | Khartoum |
| Syrian Air | Damascus |
| Tahmid Air | Almaty |
| Tajik Air | Dushanbe |
| Tenir Airlines | Baghdad |
| Tiramavia | Kabul |
| Transaero | Moscow-Domodedovo |
| Uzbekistan Airways | Tashkent |
Cargo airlines
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Air Cess | |
| Avient Aviation | Abidjan, Accra, Bamako, Kano, Lagos, Libreville, Malabo, Ouagadougou, Pointe-Noire |
| Azza Transport | |
| British Gulf International Airlines | Baghdad, Kandahar |
| Cargolux | |
| EgyptAir Cargo | Cairo |
| Kalitta Air | Amsterdam |
| Kinshasa Airways | |
| Lufthansa Cargo | Frankfurt |
| Martinair Cargo | Amsterdam, Bahrain, Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Hong Kong, Muscat |
| Click Airways | Baghdad, Bagram, Kabul, Kandahar, Bishkek, Djibouti |
| Singapore Airlines Cargo | Amsterdam, Atlanta, Brussels, Singapore |
| Star Airlines (Macedonia) | Bishkek, Hong Kong, Lagos, Skopje |
Statistics
The number of passengers passing through Sharjah International Airport has drastically increased in the past decade. [6]
| Year | Total Passengers | Total Cargo | Total Aircraft Movements |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 1,001,852 | 580,550 | 27,577 |
| 2000 | 948,207 | 475,122 | 25,997 |
| 2001 | 861,478 | 415,587 | 24,431 |
| 2002 | 1,028,624 | 497,010 | 24,803 |
| 2003 | 1,247,458 | 507,644 | 28,017 |
| 2004 | 1,661,941 | 500,927 | 32,334 |
| 2005 | 2,237,646 | 505,392 | 38,699 |
| 2006 | 3,064,396 | 569,511 | 44,182 |
| 2007 | 4,324,313 | 570,363 | 51,314 |
| 2008 | 5,280,445 | 586,677 | 60,813 |
Incidents and accidents
- On 10 July 1960 a Douglas DC-3 crashed near Sharjah. The plane was en route to Sharjah and had radiocontact with the tower. The radiocontact was later lost and the plane was never found again. All 16 occupants, including 3 crew died[7].
- On 15 December 1997 a Tupolev Tu-154 from Tajik Air crashed on approach to SHJ. Some 13 km from Sharjah the plane ran into terrain and 85 of the 86 occupants died. One of the seven crewmembers survived the disaster[8].
- On 10 February 2004, Kish Air Flight 7170, operated by a Fokker F27 crashed on approach, killing 43 of its 46 occupants, which consisted of 6 crew and 40 passengers[9][10].
- On 7 November 2004 a Boeing 747-230 Freighter was damaged beyond repair due to an aborted take-off with insufficient length runway remaining. None of the 4 crew were injured. The take-off was aborted after a report of smoke from the tower and hearing a loud bang in the cockpit[11].
- On 21 October 2009, Azza Transport Flight 2241, operated by a Boeing 707-320 crashed on take-off. The flight was carrying cargo only and all six crew were killed.[12][13]
References
- ^ http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090221/NATIONAL/996377047/1040
- ^ http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Police_and_The_Courts/10236531.html
- ^ print of ATC routes in 1945
- ^ USAF Historical Research Agency Document 00874269
- ^ http://www.airarabia.com./AirArabiaIntroduceServiceToSamara.html
- ^ statistics on the official site
- ^ AviationSafety.Net database on plane: VT-DGS, retrieved 9 May 2009
- ^ AviationSafety.net database on EY85281, retrieved 9 May 2009
- ^ Khaleej Times Online: article about Kish Air crash
- ^ "AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT 01/04" (PDF). General Civil Aviation Authority of the UAE. Retrieved 21 August 2009.
- ^ AviationSafety.net database on plane:TF-APR, retrieved 9 May 2009
- ^ "Six dead as cargo plane crashes at Sharjah Airport". Arabian Business. Retrieved 21 October 2009.
- ^ "UAE crashed cargo plane owned by Sudan's Azza Air". Reuters. Retrieved 21 October 2009.
External links
- Sharjah Airport
- Template:WAD
- Airport information for OMSJ at Great Circle Mapper. Source: DAFIF (effective October 2006).
- Current weather for OMSJ at NOAA/NWS
- Accident history for SHJ at Aviation Safety Network