Gwadar International Airport

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Gwadar International Airport
IATA: GWD - ICAO: OPGD
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority
Serves		Gwadar
Elevation AMSL		96 ft (29 m)
Coordinates		25°13′59″N, 62°19′46″E
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
06/24	4,960	1,512	Asphalt

Gwadar International Airport (IATA: GWD, ICAO: OPGD) is a domestic and international airport. It is located in Gwadar, Baluchistan, Pakistan. It is situated approximately 10 km from Gwadar City Centre.

1 About Gwadar Airport
2 Airlines and destinations
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] About Gwadar Airport

It is not as large as the other airports in Pakistan, as it operates to cater mainly to the population of Gwadar. Pakistan International Airlines is the main airline flying out of the airport, it connects Gwadar to Karachi (8 times a week), Turbat (4 times a week) and Muscat (twice a week). Oman Air temporarily started flights between Muscat and Gwadar in the mid 1990's using ATR 42 aircraft though the service was suspended due to poor performance.

The construction of the deep sea port at Gwadar has generated a lot of economic activity in the city and other airlines are starting to take note. Airblue recently started flying between Karachi and Gwadar, it operates 14 times a week with 2 flights a day. Sharjah based Orbit Aviation has also obtained clearance from the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to start twice weekly flights between Sharjah and Turbat with an intermediate stop at Gwadar, these flights are expected to commence from the end of May 2006. [1].

The Government of Pakistan anticipates Gwadar to become a regional economic hub and in preparation for this has issued a directive for the development of The new Gwadar international Airport. For this purpose the CAA has earmarked 3000 acres (12 km²) of land 26 km northeast of the existing airport. The new airport is expected to cost $250 million. It will be given international status and operate under the open skies policy. In the meantime there are plans to improve the facilities at the existing airport to facilitate the movement of wide-bodied aircraft.