King Fahd International Airport ( ar, مطار الملك فهد الدولي; KFIA) , also known as Dammam International Airport or simply Dammam Airport or King Fahd Airport, is the international airport serving Dammam,

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

. The airport is located 31 kilometres (19 miles) northwest of downtown Dammam and is named after the former

King of Saudi Arabia The king of Saudi Arabia is the monarchial head of state and ruler of Saudi Arabia who holds absolute power. He is the head of the Saudi Arabian royal family, the House of Saud. The king is called the "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques" (), a ...

, Fahd ibn Abdulaziz (1921–2005). The airport serves the entire Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia and is one of the three primary international airports in the kingdom. King Fahd International is also the largest airport in the world by area, with the area of the airport property being an approximate 776 square kilometres (300 square miles), even though the airport building itself is just . Formerly a US airbase used primarily during the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

, the airport has been overseeing commercial operations since 28 November 1999 and has since expanded to provide connections to 43 destinations. Before King Fahd International, the primary airport serving the region was the much busier Dhahran International Airport, which has since been converted for military use and is now designated the

King Abdulaziz Air Base King Abdulaziz Air Base () , also known as Dhahran Air Base and formerly Dhahran International Airport, Dhahran Airport and Dhahran Airfield, is a Royal Saudi Air Force base located in Dhahran in the Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. Located west ...

. Since July 1, 2017, the airport has been operated and managed by the Dammam Airports Company (DACO). Commercial transport was only halted once throughout the history of the airport, when on March 21, 2020, the

Saudi Press Agency The Saudi Press Agency (SPA; ar, وكالة الأنباء السعودية) is the official news agency of Saudi Arabia. History and profile The agency was established in 1970 as the first national news agency in Saudi Arabia. The agency is a ...

(SPA) announced the suspension of all domestic and international travel both within and to and from the kingdom. Domestic operations were reinitiated on May 31, while international flights were still suspended until further notice, as of September 2020. The third largest airport in the kingdom by passenger volume, more than 10 million passengers use King Fahd International each year, and 37 airlines operate flights in and out of the airport. The airport serves as a hub to Saudia and

Flynas Flynas ( ar, طيران ناس), stylized ''flynas'', formerly Nas Air, is a Saudi low-cost airline, the country first budget airline. The company's head office is located in Riyadh. History Saudi Arabian Airlines was the only airline in the c ...

. It previously served as a hub to the now defunct Sama airline. In addition to these airlines, Saudi Aramco Aviation, the airline operated by Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil giant, uses it to transport employees in and out of strategic locations such as

Yanbu Yanbu ( ar, ينبع, lit=Spring, translit=Yanbu'), also known simply as Yambu or Yenbo, is a city in the Al Madinah Province of western Saudi Arabia. It is approximately 300 kilometers northwest of Jeddah (at ). The population is 222,360 (2 ...

, Tanajib and

Shaybah Shaybah, also called as Zararah, is a settlement dominated by a major crude oil production oil site, the Shaybah oil field, in Saudi Arabia, located approximately from the northern edge of the Rub' Al-Khali ("Empty Quarter") desert. It is about ...

, also flies out of the airport. The airport is served by two runways; both 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) long, and consists of three terminal buildings: the Passenger Terminal serves mainstream passengers, the Aramco Terminal is used by Aramco employees to board Saudi Aramco Aviation flights and the Royal Terminal is reserved for use by the Saudi royal family. The busiest route operated between Dammam and another city is to and from

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

, with 70 weekly flights.

History

King Fahd International Airport - Taxiway Parking Ramp

The airport is named for

King Fahd Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ( ar, فهد بن عبد العزيز آل سعود ''Fahd ibn ʿAbd al ʿAzīz Āl Suʿūd'', ; 1920, 1921 or 1923 – 1 August 2005) was a Saudi Arabian politician who was King and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia fro ...

(), under whose reign it was constructed and inaugurated. Design of the airport building began in 1976. The site master plan was created by architecture firm

Yamasaki & Associates Yamasaki Associates, Inc. (also as Minoru Yamasaki Associates, Inc. before 1986) was an architectural firm based in Troy, Michigan. Its founder, Minoru Yamasaki, was well known for his design of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Histo ...

and

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and p ...

and completed in 1977, with construction beginning in 1983. The basic infrastructure of the airport was complete by the end of 1990, which allowed the U.S-led coalition forces to use the airport during the Gulf War in early 1991 for the storage of military aircraft, including 144 A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, among other aircraft such as the AH-64 Apaches and CH-47 Chinooks of the 101st Airborne Division, before operations were transferred to the Ahmad al-Jaber Air Base in

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

. The General Authority of Civil Aviation of Saudi Arabia inaugurated the King Fahd International Airport and opened it to commercial traffic on 28 November 1999, and all airlines transferred their operations from the Dhahran International Airport, which had been in use until then. Dhahran International has since been converted for military usage and was designated the

. As part of the Saudi Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Program, King Fahd International was corporatized in July 2017 under the Dammam Airports Company (DACO), which operates and maintains the airport. In an effort to mitigate the spread of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

, all domestic and international flights were suspended until further notice on 21 March 2020. Following strict curfews and lowering in case numbers, domestic flights were allowed to operate once again on May 31. International flights are still suspended as of September 2020.

Facilities

The airport is classified as Code E by the ICAO which means aircraft such as the Boeing 747-400 and A340-600 could be easily accommodated. It is practically possible for an A380 to use the airport, but this is not recommended as in order to accommodate such aircraft, an airport is required to be Code F; only the runways at Dammam Airport meet Code F requirements; the taxiways and gates do not.

Terminals

The six-story main terminal building has a total area of . Approximately were built in the first phase, in addition to 11 fixed passenger boarding bridges serving 15 gates. The original design included 31 fixed boarding bridges. The departure terminal is equipped with several customer counters of which 66 were allocated to Saudia (now shared with

flynas Flynas ( ar, طيران ناس), stylized ''flynas'', formerly Nas Air, is a Saudi low-cost airline, the country first budget airline. The company's head office is located in Riyadh. History Saudi Arabian Airlines was the only airline in the c ...

), 44 to foreign airlines, and the rest for customs and immigration. King Fahd International Airport was the first Saudi airport to adopt

duty-free A duty-free shop (or store) is a retail outlet whose goods are exempt from the payment of certain local or national taxes and duties, on the requirement that the goods sold will be sold to travelers who will take them out of the country, w ...

stores. In addition to the spaces allocated to duty-free stores, 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 private airline operated by Saudi Aramco, Saudi Aramco Aviation, operates out of the Aramco Terminal, providing connections to its employees to faraway company locations such as in

, Tanajib,

and

Haradh Haradh () is a large town and industrial city in the Ahsa Governorate in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, approximately southwest of Hofuf. Due to its location above the Ghawar oil field, several oil and gas wells, along with oil refineri ...

, in addition to some remote

pump station Pumping stations, also called pumphouses in situations such as drilled wells and drinking water, are facilities containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are used for a variety of infrastructure systems, ...

s, using their own fleet of

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton Factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the Boeing 707, 7 ...

s and Embraer ERJ-170LRs. The Royal Terminal is reserved for the royal family of Saudi Arabia, government personnel, and official guests. It covers an area of and has four bridges linking the terminal to aircraft. It is luxuriously furnished and decorated, and includes extensively landscaped exteriors and grounds. Despite its specialized purpose, the terminal is rarely used by the royal family, who generally prefer to utilize a similar special terminal at

Runways

The airport has two parallel runways with a length of each: 16L/34R and 16R/34L, in addition to taxiways parallel to the runways and a cross taxiway to connect the two runways. The two runways are separated by . The east runway is generally used by Saudi Aramco while commercial airlines use the west one. A third parallel runway is under construction.

Ground transportation

The terminal can only be accessed via Route 605, a secondary expressway linking the cities of

Khobar Khobar ( ar, ٱلْخُبَر, translit=al-Khobar) is a city and governorate in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, situated on the coast of the Persian Gulf. With a population of 457,748 as of 2017, Khobar is part of the 'Triplet ...

and Dammam in the south, and

Qatif Qatif or Al-Qatif ( ar, ٱلْقَطِيف ''Al-Qaṭīf'') is a governorate and urban area located in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. It extends from Ras Tanura and Jubail in the north to Dammam in the south, and from the Persian Gulf in the ...

in the north; to the airport. Route 6466, a minor road and

spur A spur is a metal tool designed to be worn in pairs on the heels of riding boots for the purpose of directing a horse or other animal to move forward or laterally while riding. It is usually used to refine the riding aids (commands) and to ba ...

of Highway 40, links the highway to Route 605 and the airport. SAPTCO offers bus connections from Khobar and Dammam to the airport. Taxis are available at fixed prices to every major city and town in the kingdom, with private companies such as

Careem Careem is a Dubai-based super app with operations in over 100 cities, covering 12 countries across the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia regions. The company, which was valued at over billion in 2018, became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Uber ...

, a subsidiary of

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), packa ...

, providing similar services. The total area of the parking complex is , distributed among three covered floors, with a maximum capacity of 4,930 cars. Two open parking areas are available beside the rentals to accommodate additional cars.

Other facilities

The Airport Mosque was built on the roof of the car park and in the middle of a landscaped area of 46,200 m² (497,292 ft²). The architecture of the mosque is an amalgamation of

modern architecture Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that for ...

with traditional Islamic architectural elements. The mosque can accommodate up to 2,000 worshippers and access to it 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. The airport has its own

plant nursery A nursery is a place where plants are propagated and grown to a desired size. Mostly the plants concerned are for gardening, forestry or conservation biology, rather than agriculture. They include retail nurseries, which sell to the general p ...

with a total area of ; which encompasses three greenhouses and of green fields. The nursery supplies the airport gardens and planted areas with trees and plants. The control tower stands high. The height allows visibility of all operational parts of the airport.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo

Statistics

At present, around 9.7 million passengers use King Fahd International Airport annually.

Records

* King Fahd International has been cited as the largest airport in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records. At 776 square kilometres (300 mi²), the property is larger than the neighbouring country of

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

. The official website of the airport reports a utilized area of , or 36.75 square kilometres, making the airport the sixth-largest in the world. * One of the world's shortest international flights is operated between King Fahd International in Dammam and Bahrain International in Manama, covering a distance of ; it takes just 45 minutes from gate to gate. * In May 2009, the

Antonov An-225 Mriya The Antonov An-225 Mriya ( uk, Антонов Ан-225 Мрія, lit=dream' or 'inspiration; NATO reporting name: Cossack) was a strategic airlift cargo aircraft designed and produced by the Antonov Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. It was o ...

, the world's largest aircraft, landed at the airport en route from

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

Accidents and incidents

* On February 1, 2020, Saudia Flight 919, a

Boeing 747-400F The Boeing 747-400 is a large, long-range Wide-body aircraft, wide-body airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, an advanced variant of the initial Boeing 747. The "Advanced Series 300" was announced at the September 1984 Farnborough ...

operated by Air ACT and destined for

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, suffered a tail strike upon takeoff from the airport. The aircraft entered a holding pattern west of the airport before diverting to Jeddah, landing at

King Abdulaziz International Airport King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA) ( ar, مطار الملك عبدالعزيز الدولي) is an international airport serving Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, also known as "Jeddah International Airport"( ar, مطار جدة الدولي). T ...

three hours later.

References

External links

FlightRadar24 Live Movement of KFIA

King Fahd International Airport
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:King Fahd International Airport Airports in Saudi Arabia Transport in Dammam 1999 establishments in Saudi Arabia Airports established in 1999 Dhahran Khobar Ras Tanura Minoru Yamasaki buildings