Baghdad International Airport

Baghdad International Airport (Template:Comma separated entries), previously Saddam International Airport from 1982 to 2003, (Template:Comma separated entries) (Template:Langx) is Iraq's largest international airport, located in a suburb about west of downtown Baghdad in the Baghdad Governorate. It is the home base for Iraq's national airline, Iraqi Airways.

History

Interwar

The Baghdad West Aerodrome was made available for civilian flights of Imperial Airways on April 1, 1929.

It is unclear when the airport actually became the main airport of Baghdad, as it existed long before 1982, with what is now runway 15R/33L as the only runway. Until 1970, Al Muthanna Airport or Muthenna Air Base was the main airport of Baghdad.

Construction and operation

The airport was developed under a consortium led by French company Spie Batignolles under an agreement made in 1979. The Iran–Iraq War delayed full opening of the airport until 1982. It opened as Saddam International Airport, bearing the name of then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Most of Baghdad's civilian flights stopped in 1991, when the United Nations imposed restrictions on Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait. After the Persian Gulf War, a no-fly zone imposed on Iraq by the United States and the United Kingdom meant that Iraqi Airways was only able to continue domestic flights for limited periods. Occasional international charter flights carrying medicine, aid workers, and government officials were allowed into Baghdad. Royal Jordanian Airlines operated regular flights from Amman to Baghdad.

On August 17, 2000, the airport was officially opened to civilian flights. Minister of Transport Ahmad Murtada said that:

And we are expecting the arrival of aircraft. The embargo has prevented Iraqi citizens from using the airport for 10 years. There is no international resolution banning flights to Iraq. It is a US-British-Zionist decision that is neither lawful, humane nor fair.

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2003–2005 (U.S. occupation)

File:Baghdad International Airport (October 2003).jpg

Inside view of the deserted Samarra Blue terminal 3 terminal in 2003, showing a nonfunctional FIDS (note the red and white icon for the long-defunct East German airline Interflug on the fourth row from the bottom, a legacy of the invasion of Kuwait), in front of empty check-in desks and passport control

File:Sen. McCain visits Iraq DVIDS93115.jpg

A military helicopter flying over the airport, 2003

In 2003, United States-led Coalition forces invaded Iraq. In early April, they moved into Baghdad, took control of the airport, and changed its name to Baghdad International Airport. The ICAO code for the airport consequently changed from ORBS to ORBI. The IATA code also changed from SDA to BGW, which had previously referred to all Baghdad airports, and before that to Al Muthana Airport when Saddam Hussein was in power.

In July 2003, the airport resumed civilian flights for the first time since 1991.

File:001127-BaghdadAirport-Iraq-IMG 8335-2.jpg

Babylon Terminal, Baghdad International Airport in 2022

Civilian control of the airport was returned to the Iraqi Government from the Coalition Provisional Authority in 2004.

2005–2011

Sather Air Base – the American base on the west side of the airport – came under periodic rocket fire from Baghdad. On 6 December 2006, a 107mm rocket attack landed from a parked C-5A aircraft, puncturing it with scores of shrapnel holes.

Terminal C was refreshed with three active gate areas for carriers operating from the airport.

2012-Present

Baghdad Airport Road, connecting the airport to the Green Zone, once a dangerous route full of IEDs, was refurbished in 2014 with palm trees, manicured lawns, and a fountain, with Turkish assistance.

On 1 May 2023, the Iraqi government under Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani approved plans to enhance services with the intention of launching an expansion project in the development of Baghdad Airport in the second half of 2023. In 2024, the airport reached the final stage of its expansion plan, according to the International Finance Corporation.

Military use

A separate enclave within the airport houses the New Al Muthana Air Base, where the Iraqi Air Force's 23rd Squadron is based, operating three Lockheed C-130E Hercules transport aircraft. The base is also home to a number of Sukhoi Su-25 attack aircraft.

Sather Air Base, or Camp Sather, was a United States Air Force base on the west side of the airport from 2003 to 2011. It was named in memory of Combat Controller Staff Sergeant Scott Sather, the first enlisted airman to die in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Sather was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with Valor for his leadership of a 24th Special Tactics Squadron reconnaissance task force during the initial stages of the 2003 U.S. invasion.

Airport developments

On 18 May 2010, plans were unveiled for an expansion of Baghdad International Airport, doubling its capacity to 15 million passengers per year. The expansion, to be funded by foreign investors, was to include construction of three new terminals and refurbishment of the existing three, each of which would accommodate 2.5 million passengers annually.

Airlines and destinations

Cargo

File:Baghdadinternationalairportaerial.JPG

Aerial view of Baghdad International Airport

Statistics

Year	Passengers		Cargo		Aircraft operations
	Total	%YoY	Tons	%YoY	Movements	%YoY
2015	1,898,589	N.D.	11,657.5	N.D.	19,952	N.D.
2016	1,787,247	Decrease 5.9%	18,903.1	Increase 62.2%	16,858	Decrease 15.5%
2017	3,507,910	Increase 96.3%	33,254.8	Increase 75.9%	31,342	Increase 85.1%
2018	3,909,709	Increase 11.5%	11,027.0	Decrease 66.8%	37,751	Increase 20.4%
2019	3,778,578	Decrease 3.5%	12,057.7	Increase 9.3%	37,265	Decrease 1.3%
2020	928,876	Decrease 75.4%	6,105.3	Decrease 49.4%	11,301	Decrease 69.7%
2021	2,071,150	Increase 123.0%	7,346.7	Increase 20.3%	23,678	Increase 109.5%
2022	2,915,052	Increase 40.7%	8,803.3	Increase 19.8%	32,549	Increase 37.5%

Source: COSIT. Air Transport Activity Statistics, years 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Incidents and accidents

• In February 1991, five aircraft, comprising three Iraqi Government executive jets, plus two Iraqi Airways Tupolev Tu-124Vs (YI-AEL and YI-AEY), were destroyed on the ground at Saddam International Airport by US or allied bombs during the Gulf War.
• In June 2000, two Saudi former military officers boarded a plane bound for London and diverted it to Baghdad. They wanted to claim asylum in Iraq, but Iraqi authorities later deported them to Saudi Arabia.
• On 22 November 2003, a European Air Transport Airbus A300B4 freighter, registered OO-DLL, operating on behalf of DHL Aviation, was hit by an SA-14 'Grail' missile shortly after takeoff. The airplane lost hydraulic pressure, causing a loss of control. After extending the landing gear to create more drag, the crew piloted the plane using differences in engine thrust and landed the plane with minimal further damage. All three crew survived. After the incident, civilian planes took to routinely performing corkscrew landings to minimise the risk of being hit by surface weapons.
• On 26 January 2015, a Flydubai Boeing 737-800 flying from Dubai to Baghdad with 154 passengers on board was hit by small-arms fire on approach to Baghdad International Airport. The plane landed safely. One passenger was injured when at least three bullets struck the plane. After the incident, UAE carriers FlyDubai and Emirates suspended their flights from Dubai to Baghdad. Flights by Turkish Airlines and Royal Jordanian were also temporarily suspended.
• On 3 January 2020, a U.S. drone strike killed Qasem Soleimani, leader of Iran's Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces, as their convoy left the airport on or near Baghdad Airport Road.

See also

• List of airports in Iraq
• List of the busiest airports in the Middle East

External links

• Baghdad Airport Arrivals and Departures (non-official website)
• Globalsecurity.org profile
• Christian Science Monitor article on reconstruction, October 2003
• Extensive photographs of Baghdad Airport – 12.07.2004
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