Kuwait International Airport

Kuwait International Airport مطار الكويت الدولي
IATA: KWI – ICAO: OKBK KWI Location of Airport in Kuwait
Summary
Airport type		Military/Public
Operator		Directorate General of Civil Aviation
Serves		Kuwait City, Kuwait
Location		Al Farwaniyah Governorate, Kuwait
Hub for		Kuwait Airways Jazeera Airways
Elevation AMSL		206 ft / 63 m
Coordinates		29°13′36.4″N 47°58′47.9″E / 29.226778°N 47.979972°E / 29.226778; 47.979972
Website		www.kuwait-airport.com.kw
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.

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]

Airlines and destinations

The interior of the landside concourse.

Qatar Airways A320 at the airport

Jazeera Airways A320 parked at the ramp

The traditional roof of the car park at the airport

Passenger

^[2]

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
Air Koryo	Pyongyang	1
AlMasria Universal Airlines	Alexandria-El Nouzha, Assiut	1
Al-Naser Airlines	Baghdad, Najaf	1
Ariana Afghan Airlines	Kabul	1
Biman Bangladesh Airlines	Chittagong, Dhaka	1
British Airways	London-Heathrow	1
Bulgaria Air	Seasonal: Bourgas, Sofia, Varna	1
Bulgarian Air Charter	Seasonal: Varna	GA
EgyptAir	Alexandria-El Nouzha, Assiut, Cairo, Luxor, Sohag	1
Emirates	Dubai	1
Ethiopian Airlines	Addis Ababa	1
Etihad Airways	Abu Dhabi	1
flydubai	Dubai	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, Jeddah, Luxor, Mashhad, Riyadh, Sharm el-Sheikh, Sohag	1
Jet Airways	Mumbai	1
KLM	Amsterdam, Bahrain	1
Kuwait Airways	Abu Dhabi, Alexandria-Borg Al 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
Rovos Air	Baghdad, Kandahar	1
Royal Jordanian	Amman-Queen Alia	1
Saudi Arabian Airlines	Jeddah, Madinah, Riyadh	1
Shaheen Air International	Lahore	1
Singapore Airlines	Abu Dhabi, Singapore	1
Sky Airlines	Antalya	1
SriLankan Airlines	Colombo, Dubai	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

Cargo

Airlines	Destinations
Air France Cargo	Dubai, Hanoi, Hong Kong, Paris-Charles de Gaulle
Atlas Air	Dubai, Hong Kong
Cargolux	Hong Kong, Luxembourg
DHL Aviation	Bahrain
Falcon Express Cargo Airlines	Bahrain, Doha, Dubai, Riyadh
Swiftair	Kandahar
TMA Cargo	Bahrain, Beirut, Dubai
Qatar Airways Cargo	Doha

Airport statistics

2006-2011^[3]

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

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.^[4]
• 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.^[5]
• 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.^[6]
• Two hijackers demanding money surrendered after hijacking a Kuwait Airways Boeing 737-200 during a flight from Beirut on 24 July 1980.^[7]
• 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.
• 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.^[8]

References

1. ^ "Airport Star Ranking - 3 Star Airports". Skytrax. 2007. http://www.airlinequality.com/AirportRanking/3-Star.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-30. 
2. ^ "Kuwait International Airport Timetable". Schedules Section, Air Transport Department, DGCA. 2010-10-26. http://www.kuwait-airport.com.kw/flight/TimeTable.aspx. 
3. ^ "Kuwait International Airport Statistics". Statistics Section, Air Transport Department, DGCA. 2010-10-26. http://www.kuwait-airport.com.kw/Stat/Stat.htm. 
4. ^ [1], Aviation Safety Network.
5. ^ [2], Aviation Safety Network.
6. ^ [3], Aviation Safety Network.
7. ^ [4], Aviation Safety Network.
8. ^ [5], Aviation Safety Network.

External links

	Kuwait portal
	Aviation portal

• 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