Imam Khomeini International Airport

فرودگاه بین‌المللی امام خمینی
Summary
Airport typePublic
OwnerGovernment of Iran
OperatorTehran Airport City
ServesTehran metropolitan area
LocationTehran, Iran
Opened8 May 2004 (2004-05-08)
Hub for
Time zoneIRST (UTC+3:30)
Elevation AMSL3,305 ft / 1,007 m
Coordinates35°24′58″N 051°09′08″E / 35.41611°N 51.15222°E / 35.41611; 51.15222
Websiteikac.ir
Maps
IKA is located in Iran
IKA
IKA
Location within Iran
IKA is located in Middle East
IKA
IKA
IKA (Middle East)
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
11L/29R 13,772 4,198 Asphalt
11R/29L
Closed		 13,940 4,249 Asphalt
Statistics (2017)
Aircraft Movements58,123 Increase 9%
Passengers8,852,232 Increase 13%
Cargo (t)163,699 Increase 11%

Imam Khomeini International Airport (IATA: IKA; ICAO: OIIE) is the primary international airport of Tehran, the capital city of Iran, located 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of Tehran. All international flights in Tehran are currently served by this airport, and all domestic flights are served by Mehrabad Airport. IKA ranks third in terms of total passenger traffic in Iran after Mehrabad Airport and Mashhad International Airport. The airport is operated by the Iran Airports Company and is the primary operating base for Iran Air and Mahan Air, as well as an international hub for many smaller Iranian airlines.

The facility covers a total expanse of 13,700 hectares (53 sq.mi/137 sq.km) of airport property, making the airport among the largest in the world in terms of land area.[2]

History

Early planning

Construction of the airport began prior to the 1979 Iranian revolution. The original designers were Tippetts-Abbett-McCarthy-Stratton (TAMS), an American engineering and architectural consulting partnership. A local joint venture was formed between TAMS and local firm Abdol Aziz Farmanfarmaian Associates called TAMS-AFFA, to carry out the full design and supervision of construction. The original design of the airport was going to be similar to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Following the Iranian revolution, however, the project was abandoned until the government of Iran decided to design and build the airport using local expertise.

Construction

French firm ADP was selected to head the local designers and engineering firms. A turnkey design and build contract was awarded to a local general contractor company, Kayson Co., to carry out and manage the construction. After two years this contract was abandoned and was awarded to a bonyad, the Mostazafan Foundation.[3]

Initial opening

After construction of Terminal 1 was completed by the Mostazafan Foundation, the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization decided to turn the management of operations along with the construction of the second terminal to the TAV (Tepe-Akfen-Vie) consortium consisting of two Turkish (Tepe and Akfen) and an Austrian (Vie) companies. The original opening was scheduled for 11 February 2004, the onset of the auspicious "Ten-Day Dawn" (1–11 February) celebrations, marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. There were numerous issues surrounding the construction of the airport including the supply of fuel to the new airport, and a delay in signing a deal with the Iranian oil ministry forced a delay in the opening of the airport until 8 May 2004.

Just prior to the opening on 8 May, two local airlines refused to switch to the new airport. Economic Hayat-e No daily quoted Ali Abedzadeh, director of semi-privately owned Iran Aseman Airlines, as saying "We are not flying from an airport run by foreigners." TAV officials were ordered to withdraw their personnel and equipment from the airport on 7 May 2004, and operations were handed over to Iran Air. "I think they (the armed forces) were given false reports that the Turks were still on the site, while they had all evacuated the airport by Friday," airport manager Hossein Pirouzi said. However, on 8 May, a few hours after the opening of airport, the Revolutionary Guards of the Iranian Armed Forces closed it, citing security fears over the use of foreigners in the running of the airport. Only one Emirates flight from Dubai was allowed to land. The second flight from Dubai, which was an Iran Air flight, was forced to land in Isfahan International Airport, because the Mehrabad Airport did not allow it to land there after the Tehran international airport was closed by the armed forces. The rest of the flights were diverted to Mehrabad. On 11 May, in a meeting of the Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ugur Ziyal and Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, the Turkish expressed unease about the actions of the Iranian armed forces. The airport reopened on 13 May, as deputy head of Iran's Joint Chiefs of staff Brigadier-General Alireza Afshar stated "because foreign companies will no longer be in charge of the airport's operation, security obstacles are removed."

Second opening

Mahan Air Airbus A340s parked at IKIA.
The Emirates Airbus A380 saluted by traditional water cannon ceremony In Tehran Int'l Airport, 2014

In April 2005, the $350 million Imam Khomeini International Airport was reopened under the management of a consortium of four local airlines—Mahan Air, Aseman, Caspian Airlines and Kish Air—although no formal contract appeared to have been awarded. Soon later management of the airport was transferred to the Iran Airports Company which in behalf of Iranian Ministry of Roads and Transportation is in charge of operating all civil and governmental Iranian airports except some belonging to special organizations like Oil ministry or Armed Forces.

By 2010, Conviasa had discontinued service to Caracas via Damascus.[4][5]

Infrastructure

Passenger terminals

As of June 2022, IKIA has two active terminals.

Terminal 1

Terminal 1, IKIA's first active terminal, has a total annual handling capacity of 6.5 million passengers and 120,000 tonnes of cargo. In 2017, it handled nearly 9 million passengers.[6]

Salam Terminal (Terminal 2)

Salaam Terminal, IKIA Second Active Terminal, has a capacity of 5 million passengers per year. While originally intended as a dedicated pilgrimage terminal, according to Iran's former Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi, it will be open to all varieties of flights.[6]

Iranshahr Terminal (Terminal 3)

IKIA's proposed third terminal, called the Iranshahr Terminal, is currently in its planning phase. In mid-February 2016, its development contract had been awarded to the Dutch engineering firm Netherlands Airport Consultants (NACO), a subsidiary of Royal HaskoningDHV.[6] However, in 2017, NACO withdrew from the contract after its failure to obtain financing due in part to US sanctions against Iran. The Iranshahr Terminal is planned to have a capacity of 20 million passengers per year, which would bring the airport's total passenger capacity to 30 million passengers per year.[7]

Runways

There are currently two runways at IKA of which only one is operational. The operational runway is equipped with the ILS CAT II since August 2009. A second ILS system was purchased seven years ago to serve the other runway but the selling firm refused to set it up due to sanctions against Iran. The ILS was installed by Iranian technicians.[8] A third runway positioned to the south of the existing runways and passenger terminal is in final stages of construction.

Hotels

In October 2015, French corporation AccorHotels opened its Novotel and Ibis-branded hotels on the airport premises, marking the entry of the first international hotel chain into the Iranian market since the 1979 revolution.[9] The hotel chains left Iran in 2021 after the ending of their contract, renaming the hotels to Remis and Rexan, The two hotels are connected to Terminal 1 by a sky bridge passing through the airport metro station.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

AirlinesDestinations
Aeroflot Moscow–Sheremetyevo
Air Arabia Abu Dhabi,[10] Sharjah
AnadoluJet Ankara, Istanbul–Sabiha Gökçen
Seasonal: İzmir
Ariana Afghan Airlines Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif
Armenia Airways Yerevan
ATA Airlines Ankara, Baghdad, Istanbul, Najaf, Tbilisi
Seasonal: İzmir
Austrian Airlines Vienna[11]
Azerbaijan Airlines Baku[12]
Caspian Airlines Ankara, Baghdad, Damascus, Istanbul, İzmir, Najaf
Seasonal: Denizli
Cham Wings Airlines Damascus, Latakia
China Southern Airlines Ürümqi[13]
Conviasa Caracas, Damascus[14]
Corendon Airlines Seasonal Charter: Kayseri
Emirates Dubai–International
Fly Arna Yerevan[15]
Fly Baghdad Baghdad, Najaf
flydubai Dubai–International
FlyOne Yerevan[16]
Freebird Airlines Seasonal Charter: Adana, Gazipaşa/Alanya
Iran Air Baku, Beirut, Cologne/Bonn, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Istanbul, Karachi, Kuwait City, London–Heathrow, Milan–Malpensa, Mumbai, Najaf, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Rome–Fiumicino, Vienna
Seasonal: Denizli, İzmir, Jeddah, Medina
Iran Airtour Baghdad, Dubai–International, Istanbul, Najaf, Yerevan
Seasonal: Denizli, İzmir
Iran Aseman Airlines Baghdad, Istanbul, Najaf, Tbilisi
Seasonal: Batumi, İzmir
Iraqi Airways Baghdad, Najaf, Sulaimaniyah
Jazeera Airways Kuwait City[17]
Kam Air Kabul,[18] Mazar-i-Sharif
Kish Air Almaty
Seasonal: Najaf
Kuwait Airways Kuwait City
Lufthansa Frankfurt
Mahan Air Aleppo, Ankara, Baghdad, Bangkok–Suvarnabhumi, Beijing–Capital, Beirut, Damascus, Delhi, Dubai–International, Erbil, Guangzhou, Istanbul, Kabul, Kirkuk,[19] Lahore, Latakia, Mazar-i-Sharif, Moscow–Sheremetyevo, Moscow–Vnukovo, Najaf, Shanghai–Pudong, Shenzhen, Sulaimaniyah[20]
Seasonal: Minsk, Phuket, Saint Petersburg
Meraj Airlines Baghdad, Beirut, Damascus, Istanbul, Moscow–Vnukovo, Najaf
Seasonal: Dalaman, Saint Petersburg
Nordwind Airlines Moscow–Sheremetyevo
Seasonal: Saint Petersburg
Oman Air Muscat
Pegasus Airlines Ankara, Istanbul–Sabiha Gökçen
Seasonal: Adana, Gazipaşa/Alanya
Qatar Airways Doha
Qeshm Air Ankara, Dubai–International, Istanbul, Muscat, Najaf, Tashkent,[21] Tbilisi, Yerevan
Seasonal: Batumi, Denizli, Isparta, İzmir
SalamAir Muscat
Sepehran Airlines Ankara,[22] Baghdad, Tbilisi, Yerevan[23]
Somon Air Dushanbe[24]
Taban Air Baghdad, Istanbul, Muscat, Najaf
Turkish Airlines Istanbul
Seasonal: Adana
Varesh Airlines Dushanbe, Najaf, Tbilisi, Yerevan
Seasonal: Batumi
Yazd Airways Istanbul[25]
Zagros Airlines Baghdad, Najaf, Tashkent, Tbilisi
Seasonal: Batumi

Cargo

AirlinesDestinations
Lufthansa Cargo[26] Frankfurt
Qatar Airways Cargo[27] Doha, Hong Kong
Turkish Cargo[28][29] Hanoi, Istanbul

Statistics

In 2013, the airport handled 4.756 million passengers, a 20% increase over the previous year. This made it the eleventh busiest airport by international passenger traffic in the Middle East. The airport handled 98,904 tonnes of cargo in 2013. The total number of commercial aircraft movements was 36,827 in 2013.[30]

Annual traffic

Year[31] AnnualPassenger Traffic  % Change
20115,020,836Steady
20124,735,089Decrease 6%
20134,756,012Increase 0.4%
20146,049,062Increase 27%
20157,243,120Increase 20%
20167,821,369Increase 8%
20178,852,232Increase 13%
20186,632.493Decrease 22%
20195,985,954Decrease 11%
20201,009,678Decrease 87%
20212,018,748Increase 99%
20226,211,927Increase 205%

Ground transportation

Metro

The airport is served by the Imam Khomeini International Airport Metro Station. The metro connection for IKIA was opened on 7 August 2017, as a station on the new branch of Tehran Metro Line 1. Passengers must change trains at Shahed - Bagher Shahr Metro Station to access the rest of Line 1. There are provisions for a second station serving the planned Iranshahr Terminal (Terminal 3) in the future.

High-speed rail

The airport is planned to be served by the Tehran-Qom-Isfahan High Speed Rail. The new link will enable direct rail access from the cities of Qom and Isfahan and a fast non-stop connection to Tehran Railway Station. The line is currently in early planning and construction phase.

Highway

Imam Khomeini International Airport is accessible from Tehran by car, taxi and shuttle buses via Tehran-Qom and Tehran-Saveh freeways. Airport-operated taxis serve arriving passenger 24/7. In 2017, a typical taxi journey from the airport to the center of Tehran takes around 45 minutes which costs about 1,400,000 to 1,800,000 to Iranian rial or US$7 and are often light yellow Toyota Camry, Toyota RAV4, Hyundai Sonata, Kia K5, Volkswagen Caddy or IKCO Samand.[32]

Accidents and incidents

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Traffic Figures". Archived from the original on 28 April 2017. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  2. ↑ "Imam Khomeini Int'l Airport Facts and Figures". airport-technology.com. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
  3. ↑ "Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKA)". World Airport Codes. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  4. ↑ McConnell, Dugald; Todd, Brian (21 August 2010). "Venezuela defends controversial flights to Iran and Syria". CNN. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
  5. ↑ "Gobierno de Chávez aspira reconocimiento mundial para la aerolínea Conviasa". EFE News Service (in Spanish). 29 November 2010. ProQuest 814675612.
  6. 1 2 3 "Update on the New IKIA Terminals, Air Astana Started Tehran Flights - Aviation Iran". 30 June 2016.
  7. ↑ Vosler, Kent D. (1983). "Diving: Diving strength program at the University of Florida". National Strength & Conditioning Association Journal. 5 (6): 27. doi:10.1519/0744-0049(1983)005<0027:dspatu>2.3.co;2. ISSN 0744-0049.
  8. ↑ "ILS Launched At Imam Khomeini Airport". www.iran-daily.com. Archived from the original on 21 August 2009.
  9. ↑ "foreign hotels opening in Iran - Google Search". www.google.com.pk.
  10. ↑ "AIR ARABIA ABU DHABI 2023 NETWORK ADDITIONS – 29JAN23". Aeroroutes. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  11. ↑ "Austrian Airlines Resumes Tehran Service in May 2023". AeroRoutes. 6 March 2023. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  12. ↑ "Buta Airways August – October 2023 Network – 30JUL23". AeroRoutes. 1 August 2023. Retrieved 29 October 2023.
  13. ↑ "China Southern Airlines to resume flights to Tehran". Living in Tehran. 5 September 2022. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  14. ↑ "CONVIASA RESUMES SYRIA SERVICE FROM LATE-MAY 2023". Aeroroutes. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
  15. ↑ "Fly Arna announces Yerevan-Tehran flights". Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  16. ↑ "FlyOne Armenia launches regular flights between Yerevan and Tehran". Retrieved 6 June 2023.
  17. ↑ "Jazeera Airways Destinations". 13 July 2023.
  18. ↑ "KAM AIR BEGINS TEHRAN SERVICE FROM MID-OCT 2022". Aeroroutes. 11 November 2022.
  19. ↑ "Mahan Air NS23 Tehran – Kirkuk Operations".
  20. ↑ "Mahan Air resumes flights between Tehran and Sulaymaniyah on 10JUN18. One weekly, A310. #Iran". Twitter. 24 May 2018.
  21. ↑ "Iranian Qeshm Air To Launch Flights To Uzbekistan's Tashkent". menafn.com. 7 August 2023.
  22. ↑ "Sepehran Airlines launches new route between Tehran and Ankara". 15 October 2023.
  23. ↑ "Tehran-Yerevan Sepehran flights launched". 27 August 2023.
  24. ↑ "SOMON AIR OPENS THE ROUTE DUSHANBE–TEHRAN". SomonAir. 31 January 2023.
  25. ↑ "Yazd Air launches first international flights to Istanbul". 12 November 2023.
  26. ↑ lufthansa-cargo.com - Routes & flight schedules retrieved 6 September 2020
  27. ↑ "Qatar Airways Cargo". Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  28. ↑ turkishcargo.com - Flight Schedule retrieved 9 March 2022
  29. ↑ "Iran Air files network expansion in S18".
  30. ↑ "(IKA) Imam Khomeini International Airport". Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  31. ↑ "Iran Airports Company - Home". en.airport.ir. Archived from the original on 14 August 2020. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
  32. ↑ "Imam Khomeini Airport City Corporate > Transport & Parking > Taxi".
  33. ↑ "Iranian Airliner Crashes in Northwest, Killing 168". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 15 July 2009.
  34. ↑ "Iran Says It Unintentionally Shot Down Ukrainian Airliner". New York Times. 10 January 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  35. ↑ "Ukrainian airplane with 180 aboard crashes in Iran: Fars". Reuters. 7 January 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  36. ↑ "Ukrainian airliner crashes near Tehran: Iranian media". Al Jazeera. 8 January 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2020.

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