Queen Alia International Airport

Queen Alia International Airport
مطار الملكة علياء الدولي
Matar al-Malikah 'Alya' ad-Dowaly
IATA: AMMICAO: OJAI
AMM
Location of airport in Jordan
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner AIG group
Operator Aéroports de Paris
Serves Amman
Location Zizya
Hub for Royal Jordanian Airlines
Elevation AMSL  ft / 730 m
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
08R/26L 12,008 3,660 Concrete
08L/26R (Closed) 12,008 3,660 Asphalt
Statistics (2009, 2010)
Aircraft Movements (2009) 65,095
Passengers (2010) 5,422,301

Queen Alia International Airport (IATA: AMMICAO: OJAI) (Arabic: مطار الملكة علياء الدولي‎; transliterated: Matar al-Malikah 'Alya' ad-Dowaly) is Jordan's largest airport that is situated in Zizya (زيزياء) area, 20 miles (32 km) south of Amman. The airport has three terminals: two passenger terminals and one cargo terminal. It is the home hub of Royal Jordanian Airlines, the national flag carrier, as well as being a major hub for Jordan Aviation. It was built in 1983 and is named after Queen Alia, the third wife of King Hussein of Jordan.

A new terminal under construction is expected to increase passenger capacity to 13 million per year. It will be completed by Spring 2012.

Contents

Airlines and destinations

Airlines Destinations
Air Algérie Algiers
Air Arabia Sharjah
Air France Damascus, Paris-Charles de Gaulle
Alitalia Rome-Fiumicino
Arab Wings Aqaba, Beirut
Arkia Israel Airlines Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion
Austrian Airlines Vienna
Bahrain Air Bahrain
Blue Panorama Airlines Seasonal: Milan-Malpensa
bmi London-Heathrow
easyJet London-Gatwick
EgyptAir Cairo
Emirates Dubai
Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi
flydubai Dubai
Gulf Air Bahrain
Iraqi Airways Arbil, Baghdad[1]
Jazeera Airways Kuwait
Jordan Aviation Alexandria, Aqaba, Baghdad, Bahrain, Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Damascus, Delhi, Doha, Dubai, Hong Kong, Istanbul-Sabiha Gokcen, Kathmandu, Najaf
Kuwait Airways Kuwait
Lufthansa Frankfurt
Malév Hungarian Airlines Budapest
Middle East Airlines Beirut
Nas Air Jeddah, Riyadh
Neos Bologna, Milan-Malpensa
Petra Airlines Ankara, Antalya, Bodrum, Dalaman, Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen
Oman Air Muscat
Qatar Airways Doha
Royal Falcon Abu Dhabi, Jeddah, Madinah, Mosul, Najaf, Stockholm-Arlanda
Royal Jordanian Abu Dhabi, Accra [begins in the first half of 2012] [2],Addis Ababa [begins in the first half of 2012] [3], Aden, Al Ain, Aleppo, Alexandria, Algiers [begins in the first half of 2012] [4], Amsterdam, Antalya, Aqaba, Aswan [coming soon] [5], Athens, Baghdad, Bahrain, Baku [coming soon][6], Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Barcelona, Basra, Beirut, Benghazi, Berlin-Tegel [ends June 2], Berlin-Brandenburg [begins June 3], Brussels, Cairo, Chicago-O'Hare, Colombo, Damascus, Dammam, Dar-es-Salaam [coming soon][7], Delhi, Detroit, Doha, Dubai, Erbil, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hong Kong, Islamabad, Istanbul-Ataturk, Izmir [coming soon] [8], Jeddah, Johannesburg [coming soon][9], Khartoum, Kiev-Borypsil, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, Lagos, Larnaca, London-Heathrow, Luxor [coming soon] [10], Madrid, Medina, Milan-Malpensa, Montréal-Trudeau, Moscow-Domodedovo, Mumbai, Munich, Muscat, Nairobi, New York-JFK, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Riyadh, Rome-Fiumicino, Sanaa, Sharm El-Sheikh, Sulaymaniyah, Tehran-Imam Khomeini [coming soon] [11], Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion ,Tripoli, Tunis, Vienna, Zurich
Royal Wings Al Arish, Algiers, Alexandria, Ankara, Antalya, Aqaba, Rhodes, Sharm-el-Sheikh, Warsaw
Saudi Arabian Airlines Dammam, Jeddah, Medina, Riyadh
Sudan Airways Beirut, Damascus, Khartoum
Syrian Air Damascus
TAROM Bucharest-Henri Coandă
Transaero Airlines Moscow-Domodedovo
Turkish Airlines Istanbul-Atatürk
UM Airlines Kiev-Boryspil
Yemenia Beirut, Sana'a

Cargo airlines

Airlines Destinations
Cargolux Luxembourg, Singapore
Royal Jordanian Cargo Algiers, Aqaba, Athens, Beirut, Brussels, Khartoum, Budapest, Dubai, London-Stansted, London-Gatwick, London-Heathrow, Maastricht/Aachen, Istanbul-Ataturk, New York-JFK, Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion
Saudi Arabian Airlines Jeddah
Turkish Airlines Istanbul-Ataturk

Lounges

The airport has two lounges as of January 2010, one belonging to Royal Jordanian while the other is operated by the Four Seasons hotel chain [1].

The Royal Jordanian Crown Lounge is accessible by Crown Class passengers and any passengers traveling on first or business class out of or to Queen Alia International Airport.

The Four Seasons lounge is located downstairs in Terminal 1 of the airport.

Transport

Buses and taxis serve the airport all day (20 dinars to go to Amman). A new rail line is being constructed that will link Queen Alia International Airport with Central and Downtown Amman.

Statistics

Passenger Numbers
Year Total passengers
2002 2,334,779
2003 2,358,475
2004 2,988,174
2005 3,301,510
2006 3,506,070
2007 3,861,126 [12]
2008 4,477,811 [12]
2009 4,770,769 [13]
2010 5,422,301 [14]
2011 1,978,388 (Jan - May) [15]
Aircraft Movement
Year Total Aircraft Movements
2007 44,700
2008 51,300
2009 65,095

Future expansion

The future expansion of the airport reached financial close on 15 November 2007. The project is a $675M BOT basis transaction involving a 25 year contract for Rehabilitation, Expansion and Operation Agreement (“REOA” or “Concession” Agreement). Under the terms of the REOA with the Government, the Investor (AIG) is responsible for the rehabilitation of the existing terminal, development of a new $600M terminal designed by internationally renowned Foster + Partners. The EPC Contractor is J & P (O) Limited.

The airport expansion plan was part of a drive to make Jordan a regional hub and once it is completed, Queen Alia International Airport should be able to handle around thirteen million passengers a year, nearly three times as many as its current capacity. The airport development plan is currently studied by ADPI (Aéroports de Paris).

Incidents

On 3 May 2003, Hiroki Gomi, a photographer for a leading Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun, was carrying an object, reportedly a battle souvenir from Iraq, when the object exploded as it was being inspected. The device killed the security guard inspecting it, and injured Gomi, who was standing nearby.

According to Paul William Roberts (in THE WAR AGAINST TRUTH, Raincoast Books, Vancouver 2004) Gomi had picked up two examples of what appeared to be a child's toy and what he thought had been dropped by US or British forces as part of a "winning hearts and minds" campaign. He gave one to his cab driver on the way to the airport.

Immediately after the device in Gomi's possession exploded, he screamed hysterically in Japanese. When a translator was found, it was learned that the cab driver had the other "toy". The cab driver was located and his "toy" had not exploded.

Gomi was detained, but rather than being put on trial, Gomi was pardoned in 2006 by the King of Jordan.

Roberts, a classical scholar and journalist for Harper's Magazine in the USA, believes that the story was hushed up in order to conceal a serious war crime on the part of the USA or Britain: the deliberate targeting of civilians using cluster bombs designed as children's toys.

References

See also

External links

Jordan portal
Aviation portal