Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport

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Coordinates: 35°24′58″N 051°09′08″E / 35.41611, 51.15222

Imam Khomeini International Airport
فرودگاه بین‌المللی امام خمینی

IATA: IKA – ICAO: OIIE
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator Tepken-Alfen (2004)
Iran Air (2004-2008)
Military of Iran (temporary)
Serves Tehran, Iran
Location Tehran, Iran
Elevation AMSL 3,305 ft / 1,007 m
Website www.ikia.ir
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
11L/29R 13,772 4,198 Asphalt
11R/29L
Closed		 13,940 4,249 Asphalt
For the similarly named Swedish furniture company, see IKEA.
For the company IKA, see Industrias Kaiser Argentina.

Imam Khomeini International Airport (IATA: IKA, ICAO: OIIE) (Persian: فرودگاه بین‌المللی امام خمینی) is located in Tehran, Iran. The airport is located about 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of the city. It was designed to replace Mehrabad International Airport, which is in the west of the city, now inside the city boundaries. The airport, originally designated as Ahmadabad,[citation needed] is now named after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Iranian revolution in 1979. The Airport's Second terminal is currently under discussion, and has been for the past five years now.

Contents

[edit] History

The construction began before the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The original design was based on Dallas Love Field[citation needed]. The original designers were TAMS, a consortium of U.S. designers. A local joint venture was formed and was called TAMS-AFA to carry out the full design and supervision of construction.

After the Islamic Revolution, the project was abandoned until the government of Iran decided to design and build the airport using local know-how. The 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, to carry out and manage the construction. After two years this contract was abandoned and was awarded to a Bonyad, the Mostazafan & Janbazan (M&J Foundation), a public cartel.

After construction of the main terminal was finished by M&J 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 of two Turkish (Tepe and Akfen) and an Austrian (Vie) companies.

The original opening was scheduled for February 1, 2004, the onset of the auspicious 'Ten-Day Dawn' (February 1-11) 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 May 8, 2004.

Just prior to the opening on May 8, 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 May 7, 2004, and operations were handed over to Iran Air.

"I think they (the military) were given false reports that the Turks were still on the site, while they had all evacuated the airport by Friday," airport manager Hussein Pirouzi said.

However, on May 8, 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 Imam Khomeini airport was closed by the armed forces. The rest of the flights were diverted to Mehrabad.

On May 11, in a meeting of the Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ugur Ziyal and Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, the Turkish expressed uneasiness about the actions of the Iranian military.

The airport reopened on May 13, 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."

TAV officials, who had agreed to clear out for two weeks for the dispute to be settled, also stated that they believed the memorandum of understanding they signed with the Iranian government last year to operate the airport's Terminal 1 is still in effect.[citation needed]

Further complicating matters, on April 29, 2005, the United Kingdom and Canada warned its citizens against using the airport due to alleged safety concerns concerning the runway, which has been claimed to have been built over ancient qanats (subterranean waterways) [1] [2]. Iranian officials countered these claims by stating that there are no safety issues and that the International Civil Aviation Organisation had inspected and approved the airport.

[edit] 2008 Passenger protest

On January 4 2008, a heavy storm took place throughout the Tehran and Gilan Province, a storm so strong that Iran had never seen for over fifty years. As a result all flights were cancelled for an entire week due to poor weather conditions[citation needed]. However, due to the airports lack of standard resources such as: restaurants, nearby hotels, duty free shopping stores and most importantly lack of updated announcements, angry passengers lead a loud and violent riot inside the airport, demanding answers, free supplies and even the resignation of the airport operator, Iran Air were given to them. As a result, all airport and airline officials were told to halt peaceful co-operation with the passengers in the airport and started ignoring the passengers altogether, no matter what their questions were. So the majority of the passengers (who were determined to get answers from the airport in some way) attacked airline officials. An Air France crew member passed out after being envolved in a fight with an angry passenger.

The situation was resolved peacefully by the Iranian Police, decided against prosecuting the passengers (something airport officals and crew members were annoyed about) on their doings and all flights have continued operation. As a result of all the mayhem in caused in the airport, Iran Air officially resigned as operator of the airport on January 13 2008.

As the Tehran weather is becoming dangerously cold once again, many airports and airlines have suggested the airport operators to fully prepare themselves for an event similar to January 4, 2008.

[edit] Transfer of flights from Mehrabad

On October 26, 2007, it was announced that as of October 28, 2007 at 12:00am all international flights except those bound to and from Damascus, Jeddah and Medina will be transferred to the Imam Khomeini International Airport and the IKIA will become Tehran's fully operational international airport.[1]

The change of international flights from Mehrabad International Airport to IKA has been gradual, starting with flights to countries bordering the Persian Gulf. All flights have now been moved to IKA except domestic flights and flights to Saudi Arabia for Hajj and Umrah.[2]

[edit] Airport Tax

Airport tax (Avarez) for every Iranian Passport holder, regardless of age, is 150,000 Iranian rials for the first time in a year (starting from Farvardin 1st, equivalent to March 21st, and ending the last day of Esfand, equivalent to March 20th) and 200,000 Iranian rials for the second time. Note that this is for flights to most countries. However, the tax is 300,000 Iranian rials for the first time in a year and 40,000 Iranian rials for the second time in a year for travelers to England, UAE and Turkey. 9,200 Rials is roughly equivalent to US$1. currently the Airport tax is 250,000 rials for flights to any country for any number of times.

It has recently been reported that Iranian citizens who reside outside of Iran are no longer required to pay this airport Tax.

[edit] Airlines and destinations

All destinations in bold are operated at Mehrabad Airport during Hajj seasons:

[edit] Terminal 1

[edit] Proposed future Terminal 2 listing

All destinations in bold italic are regional destinations proposed to be operated alongside Mehrabad Airport. All destinations in bold are currently operated in Mehrabad during Hajj seasons:

  • Iran Aseman Airlines (Abadan, Ahvaz, Bam, Gorgan, Nowshahr, Sanandaj, Yazd)
  • Caspian Airlines (Budapest, Damascus, Dubai, Istanbul-Atatürk, Kiev-Boryspil, Minsk, Yerevan)
  • Emirates (Dubai)
  • Iran Air (Amsterdam, Ankara, Bahrain-Manama, Baku, Beijing, Cologne/Bonn, Copenhagen, Dammam, Doha, Dubai, Frankfurt, Geneva, Gothenburg-Landvetter, Hamburg, Mashhad, Isfahan, Istanbul-Atatürk, Jeddah, Kabul, Karachi, Kish Island, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, London-Heathrow, Milan-Malpensa, Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Mumbai, Paris-Orly, Rome-Fiumicino, Shiraz, Seoul-Incheon, Stockholm-Arlanda, Tabriz, Tashkent, Tokyo-Narita, Vienna)
  • Mahan Air (Arbil, Almaty, Asalouyeh, Bahrain, Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Dammam, Damascus, Delhi, Dubai, Iranshahr, Isfahan, Istanbul-Atatürk, Jeddah, Kochi, Lahore, Mashhad, Sharjah, Tabriz)
  • Qatar Airways (Doha)
  • Saudi Arabian Airlines (Jeddah, Madinah)

[edit] IKIA Phase 1 Shy of Rls3 Trillion (US$335 million)

  • About 3,000 billion rials (US$335 million) have been sought for completing Phase 1 of Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA), in the next Iranian year to March 2009, announced managing director of the State Airports Company, Asghar Ketabchi.

According to a fax sent to Iran Daily by the company's Information Dissemination Department, if the sum is made available and the same amount is earmarked for the year to March 2010, the first phase of the airport would go into operation in the year to March 2009. He said that constructing the second runway, completing Customs Administrations' and a number of other buildings are among the projects for Phase 1 of IKIA. Presently the airport has the capacity to handle 6.5 million passengers per annum, he said and noted that 3 million people will use the airport by March 19. Given the eight percent growth in flights, it is estimated that IKIA will have moved five million passengers by March 2009. The newly-built Imam Khomeini International, the largest airport in Iran, sprawls over an area of 13,500 hectares. About 3.2 trillion rials (US$357 million) will be needed to promote the airport to a world-class level.

[edit] Iran to compensate Turkey's TAV

  • Iran has agreed to pay $5.7 million in compensation to Turkey's TAV Airports Holding TAVHL.IS after its contract to operate Tehran's new airport was scrapped in 2004, an Iranian news agency said.

Mehr news agency quoted an unnamed source as saying the cabinet approved a measure requiring the state airports body to pay the $5.7 million to TAV. It was not immediately clear whether the amount was all or part of compensation claims by TAV. Iranian officials could not be contacted immediately to confirm the report. TAV won an 11-year contract in 2003 to operate Terminal One of the city's new international airport and build a second terminal there for about $200 million. But the project fell through after Iranian hardliners opposed allowing a foreign firm to take such a key role. The airport was re-opened under Iranian management. A TAV consortium poured $15 million into the airport but was unceremoniously thrown out on the eve of the first flights in 2004 by hardline Revolutionary Guards.

[edit] Accidents and incidents

On Saturday December 15, 2007, an Airbus A330-200 belonging to KLM Royal Dutch Airlines coming in from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol flight number 433 collided with an Airbus 340-300 Lufthansa bound to Frankfurt International Airport. The accident, which took place at 3:00 IRST, caused no casualties but led to the cancellation of the Lufthansa flight number 601.[4] The aircraft was coming to a stop in front of a passenger boarding bridge when it crashed into the wing of a Lufthansa Airbus A340 that was heading towards the runway to take off for Frankfurt. It was reported that the planes did not sustain severe damage.[4]

On 4 January 2008 an Iran Air B747-100B had three of its engines catch fire whilst landing at Imam Khomeini Airport. Luckily, the heavy snowfall managed to put the fires out and the airplane returned to service two days after the incident.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Hot news", IKIA.ir, October 26, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-10-26. 
  2. ^ Rezaee, Siavash. "President of National Civil Aviation Organization in an interview with "Iran": small airlines will be eliminated", Iran-e Eqtesadi, 2007-10-30, p. 2. (Persian) 
  3. ^ Winter Schedule 2007/2008 (English). Iran Air. Retrieved on 2008-01-12.
  4. ^ a b Lufthansa, KLM planes collide at IKIA (English). Press TV. Retrieved on 2008-01-05.
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