Erbil International Airport () (), is an airport in the city of

Erbil Erbil (, ; , ), also called Hawler (, ), is the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The city is the capital of the Erbil Governorate. Human settlement at Erbil may be dated back to the 5th millennium BC. At the h ...

Kurdistan Region Kurdistan Region (KRI) is a semi-autonomous Federal regions of Iraq, federal region of the Iraq, Republic of Iraq. It comprises four Kurds, Kurdish-majority governorates of Arabs, Arab-majority Iraq: Erbil Governorate, Sulaymaniyah Governorate ...

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

. It is one of two international airports in the KRI, the other being Sulaymaniyah Airport, with a third in Duhok being under construction. The current airport opened in 2005 and has one of the longest runways in the world.

History

The airport was built at the beginning of the 1970s as an Iraqi

military base A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. A military base always provides accommodations for ...

. The airstrip was used as a military base until 1991 by the

Ba'ath Party The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party ( ' ), also known simply as Bath Party (), was a political party founded in Syria by Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar, and associates of Zaki al-Arsuzi. The party espoused Ba'athism, which is an ideology ...

regime as a result of

United Nations Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...

establishing a no-fly zone over northern

. After the 2003 US invasion, the

Kurdistan Regional Government The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is the official executive body of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq. The cabinet is selected by the majority party or list who also select the prime minister of the Iraqi Kurdish poli ...

took over administrative rule of the region. On 26 May 2005, the airport was given the

ICAO airport code The ICAO airport code or location indicator is a four-letter code designating aerodromes around the world. These codes, as defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization and published quarterly in ICAO Document 7910: ''Location Indic ...

ORER. Endowed with natural resources including oil, natural gas and other minerals, investment in

has increased substantially since 2005. The city of Erbil has been a large recipient of foreign investments.

Old airport

The old Erbil airport covered , and was divided into departure and arrival halls. It had three gates and a long runway with an ILS system. The Kurdistan International Bank, a Tourism Information office, the airline companies offices,

duty-free shop 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 will be sold to travelers who will take them out of the country, who will ...

s, a cafeteria, and the Korek Telecom office were located inside the terminal. The warehouse offered cargo space amounting to and consisted of an import and an export section. The cargo was handled by Dnata, a

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

-based company.

New airport

A newly built, US$550 million airport was opened on 5 July 2005. The new airport is next to the old airport (previously a military field) and has one of the world's longest runways, and is equipped for ILS CAT II operations. The airport's new terminal has duty-free shops and currency exchange offices. The terminal also has VIP areas for business jets, and there is a VIP terminal for visiting dignitaries and diplomats for the purpose of achieving international airport standards. In 2010, Erbil International Airport had the least expensive aviation fuel in Iraq (at 83 US cents per litre). From 29 September 2017 until 14 March 2018, following the failed

2017 Kurdistan Region independence referendum An independence referendum for the Kurdistan Region of Iraq was held on 25 September 2017 in Kurdistan Region, with preliminary results showing approximately 92.73 percent of votes cast in favour of independence. Despite reporting that the in ...

, all commercial international flights were suspended. The airport remained open for domestic, humanitarian, military, and diplomatic flights. The Iraqi government has been operating the airport since.

Drone attacks

The airport has been the target of numerous drone strikes by Iran-backed Shi'ite militias in 2021. On 15 April, a drone carrying explosives targeted the military section of the airport. The section housed US-led forces, and no casualties were reported. On 6 July, another drone targeted the same section of the airport and crashed near the airport. On 11 September, two drones carrying explosives failed to reach the airport; one was shot down by C-RAM air defense and the other one crashed. There were no casualties.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

These are the airlines and destinations served from Erbil Airport:

Cargo

Statistics

As of 2022, Erbil International Airport is the third-busiest airport in Iraq, behind Baghdad International Airport and Al Najaf International Airport. It is the busiest airport in the

Incidents

*On 6 July 2021, a series of attacks against the airport were reported, including drone and rocket attacks. *Erbil Airport has been targeted numerous times during the

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control

Airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

Ankawa Airports in Kurdistan Region (Iraq) 2005 establishments in Iraq Airports established in 2005 2005 establishments in Iraqi Kurdistan