, image = Plane of Pamir Airways at Herat Airport in 2010.jpg , image-width = 250px , caption = A

Pamir Airways Pamir Airways was a privately owned airline headquartered in Kabul, Afghanistan, operating scheduled passenger flights out of Kabul International Airport. The company name is derived from the Pamir Mountains and translates "roof of the world". H ...

parked at the airport in 2010 , IATA = HEA , ICAO = OAHR , type = Public/Military , owner =

Government of Afghanistan The government of Afghanistan, officially called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is the central government of Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان ...

, built = 1960s , operator = GAAC Holding , city-served =

Herat Province Herat (Persian: ) is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the north-western part of the country. Together with Badghis, Farah, and Ghor provinces, it makes up the north-western region of Afghanistan. Its primary city and ...

, location =

Herat Herāt (; Persian: ) is an oasis city and the third-largest city of Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Selseleh-ye Safēd ...

, elevation-f = 3290 , elevation-m = 1003 , metric-elev = , coordinates = , website = , pushpin_map = Afghanistan , pushpin_map_caption = Location of airport in Afghanistan , pushpin_label = HEA , pushpin_label_position = right , r1-number = 18/36 , r1-length-f = 9 888 , r1-length-m = 3 014 , r1-surface = Paved , metric-rwy = , stat1-header = , stat1-data = , stat-year = , footnotes = Source: Landings.com,Airport record for Herat Airport
at Landings.com. Retrieved 1 August 2013 AIP Afghanistan , stat2-header = , stat2-data = Herat International Airport, also known as

Khwaja Abdullah Ansari Abu Ismaïl Abdullah al-Harawi al-Ansari or Abdullah Ansari of Herat (1006–1088) ( fa, خواجه عبدالله انصاری) also known as ''Pir-i Herat'' () "Sage of Herat", was a Muslim Sufi saint who lived in the 11th century in Herat (m ...

International Airport, is located 10.5 km (6.5 mi) southeast of the city of

in western Afghanistan, east of the Herat- Farah road, close to Guzara in the

Guzara District Guzara (Gozareh) District ( fa, ولسوالی گذره) is situated in the center of Herat Province, Afghanistan, 10 km south of Herat. It borders Injil District to the north, Pashtun Zarghun District to the east, Adraskan District to th ...

of the

. It is Afghanistan's fourth largest commercial airport after the

Kabul International Airport , nativename-r = , image = Flightline at Kabul International Airport.jpeg , caption = The flightline at Kabul International Airport in January 2012 , IATA = KBL , ICAO = OAKB , ...

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

, the

Ahmad Shah Baba International Airport Ahmad Shah Baba International Airport, also referred to as Kandahar International Airport ( ps, د کندهار نړيوال هوايي ډګر) and by some military officials as Kandahar Airfield, KAF) , is located about south-east of the city Ka ...

Kandahar Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a List of cities in Afghanistan, city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population ...

and the Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi International Airport in

Mazar-i-Sharif , official_name = , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = , pushpin_map = Afghanistan#Bactria#West Asia , pushpin_label = Mazar-i-Sharif , pushpin ...

History

The airport was originally built in the 1960s by engineers from the United States. It was used by the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

forces during the 1980s. The airport was a base for fighters and transport aircraft (likely

Antonov An-26 The Antonov An-26 ( NATO reporting name: Curl) is a twin-engined turboprop civilian and military transport aircraft, designed and produced in the Soviet Union from 1969 to 1986.Gordon, Yefim. Komissarov, Dmitry & Sergey. "Antonov's Turboprop Twin ...

Antonov An-32 The Antonov An-32 ( NATO reporting name: Cline) is a turboprop twin-engined military transport aircraft. Design and development The An-32 is essentially a re-engined An-26. It is designed to withstand adverse weather conditions better than the ...

and

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-21; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet aircraft, jet fighter aircraft, fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan, Mikoyan-Gurevich OKB, De ...

). After capturing the city, the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

took control of the airport in 1995. The airport was jet bombed by the anti-Taliban alliance on 4 November 1996. On 12 November 2001, an uprising broke out, and the Taliban were ousted from the area. Elements of the

U.S. Army Special Forces The United States Army Special Forces (SF), colloquially known as the "Green Berets" due to their distinctive service headgear, are a special operations force of the United States Army. The Green Berets are geared towards nine doctrinal m ...

Operational Detachment Alpha 554 ("Texas 08") arrived at the airport soon afterwards, and in the words of the team's report: "...directly negotiate with local commanders for the placement of multinational humanitarian assistance teams to be stationed" at the airport. From 2002 to 2005, the U.S.-led coalition forces ran international operations at the airport. In May 2005, responsibility was shifted to the

International Security Assistance Force ' ps, کمک او همکاري ' , allies = Afghanistan , opponents = Taliban Al-Qaeda , commander1 = , commander1_label = Commander , commander2 = , commander2_label = , commander3 = , comman ...

(ISAF), as part of the Stage 2 transition between the U.S.-led coalition and NATO. For 45 days a 47-person Tanker Airlift Control Element, primarily deployed from the

621st Contingency Response Wing The 621st Contingency Response Wing (621 CRW) is a United States Air Force rapid response expeditionary wing, based out of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey and Travis Air Force Base, California highly-specialized in training and rapid ...

McGuire Air Force Base McGuire AFB/McGuire, the common name of the McGuire unit of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, is a United States Air Force base in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States, approximately south-southeast of Trenton. McGuire is under the j ...

, N.J. prepared the airport for the arrival of 300+ Italian troops as they assumed leadership over ISAF operations in the western regions of Afghanistan. For this particular tasking, they supported two C-17 sorties every day. They also assisted the Italian aerial port in servicing coalition C-130s that landed at the airport. ISAF use has continued since 2005, joined by the

Afghan Air Force The Air Force of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, also referred to as the Islamic Emirate Air Force and the Afghan Air Force, is the air force branch of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The Royal Afghan Air Force was e ...

and the

Afghan National Police The Afghan National Police (ANP; ps, د افغانستان ملي پولیس; prs, پلیس ملی افغانستان), is the national police force of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, serving as a single law enforcement agency all across ...

. In recent years Italy has pledged 137 million

Euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

s for the expansion of the airport. As a result, the runway was extended and re-paved and a new international terminal, named after Captain Massimo Ranzani, a fallen Italian officer, was opened. In January 2021, Afghan President

Ashraf Ghani Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (born 19 May 1949) is an Afghan politician, academic, and economist who served as the president of Afghanistan from September 2014 until August 2021, when his government was overthrown by the Taliban. Born in L ...

renamed the airport after

. In August 2021, the Taliban seized control of the airport and other parts of Herat.

Airlines and destinations

References

External links

Ariana Afghan Airlines schedule

Airport record for Herat Airport
at Landings.com * {{Authority control Airports in Afghanistan Military installations of Afghanistan Afghanistan–United States relations

History

Airlines and destinations

See also

References

External links