Sharjah International Airport

Sharjah International Airport
مطار الشارقة الدولي
Summary
Airport type Military/Public
Operator Sharjah International Airport
Serves Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Hub for
Time zone UAE Standard Time (UTC+04:00)
Elevation AMSL 116 ft / 35 m
Coordinates 25°19′45″N 055°30′58″E / 25.32917°N 55.51611°E / 25.32917; 55.51611Coordinates: 25°19′45″N 055°30′58″E / 25.32917°N 55.51611°E / 25.32917; 55.51611
Website www.sharjahairport.ae
Map
OMSJ
Location in the UAE
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
12/30 4,060 13,320 Asphalt
Statistics (2015)
Passengers 11,993,887
Movements 98,786
Cargo tonnage 213,348
Sources: UAE AIP[1]
Statistics from Sharjah International Airport[2]

Sharjah International Airport (Arabic: مطار الشارقة الدولي‎) (IATA: SHJ, ICAO: OMSJ) is an airport located 7 nautical miles (13 km; 8.1 mi)[1] east south east of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. It is spread over an area of 15,200,000 m2 (3,800 acres).[3]

Overview

Sharjah Airport is the third largest Middle East airfreight hub in cargo tonnage, according to official 2015 statistics from Airports Council International. Ground services company, Sharjah Aviation Services, handled 586,195 tonnes in 2015 – a 16.1% increase year on year. It has one passenger terminal with an area of 125,000 m2 (1,350,000 sq ft).

Sharjah International Airport is home base of the low-cost carrier Air Arabia. The headquarters of Air Arabia is in the Sharjah Freight Center,[4] on the property of the airport[5] in Sharjah, UAE.[4] The center is an old cargo terminal.

History

The current Sharjah Airport was built in the 1970s and was opened on 1 January 1977. It replaced RAF Sharjah which was closer to the city and was opened in 1932. It was the first airport in UAE and the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, for use by Imperial Airways, and was subsequently used by the RAF until 14 December 1971.[6] The reason for the move was development pressure from the city of Sharjah. The old airport's runway is now part of King Abdul Aziz Street in the city centre.[7][8][9]

The airport was used by the United States Air Force 926th Tactical Fighter Group during Operation Desert Shield/Storm.[10] Approximately 450 members of the unit were stationed at the airport, which flew A-10 Thunderbolt II ground attack aircraft during the conflict in late 1990 and early 1991.

Facilities

The airport resides at an elevation of 116 feet (35 m) above mean sea level. It has one runway designated 12/30 with an asphalt surface measuring 4,060 m × 60 m (13,320 ft × 197 ft).[1][11]

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Aerial view
Terminal interior

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Sharjah:[12]

AirlinesDestinations
Air Arabia Abadan, Abha, Ahmedabad, Alexandria–Borg el Arab, Al Jouf, Almaty, Amman–Queen Alia, Asmara,[13] Assiut, Astana, Baghdad, Bahrain, Baku,[14] Bengaluru, Basra, Beirut, Cairo, Chennai, Chittagong, Coimbatore, Colombo, Dammam, Delhi, Dhaka, Erbil, Faisalabad, Gassim, Goa, Grozny, Hambantota, Hargeisa,[15] Hyderabad, Isfahan, Istanbul–Sabiha Gökçen, Izmir, Jaipur, Jeddah, Kabul, Karachi, Kathmandu, Khartoum, Kiev–Boryspil, Kochi, Kozhikode, Kuwait, Lar, Lamerd, Madinah, Mashhad, Moscow–Domodedovo, Moscow–Sheremetyevo,[16] Mumbai, Muscat, Multan, Nagpur, Nairobi–Jomo Kenyatta, Najaf,Peshawar, Prague (begins 11 December 2018), Quetta, Riyadh, Salalah, Sana'a, Shiraz, Sialkot, Sohag, Sohar, Tabuk, Ta'if, Tbilisi, Tehran–Imam Khomeini, Thiruvananthapuram, Trabzon, Ürümqi, Yanbu, Yerevan
Seasonal: Batumi, Bodrum,[17] Qabala,[18] Sarajevo
Airblue Islamabad, Lahore, Multan
Air India Chennai, Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram
Hajj: Medina
Air India Express Chandigarh, Kochi, Kozhikode, Mumbai, Tiruchirappalli, Thiruvananthapuram, Varanasi
Cham Wings Airlines Damascus[19]
EgyptAir Cairo
IndiGo Hyderabad,[20] Lucknow,[20] Kozhikode, Thiruvananathpuram
Jet Airways Kochi
Pakistan International Airlines Turbat
SCAT Airlines Seasonal: Aktau,[21] Almaty, Astana
Turkish Airlines Istanbul-Atatürk (begins 4 April 2019)[22]
Uzbekistan Airways Tashkent

Cargo

AirlinesDestinations
Cargolux Karachi, Luxembourg
DHL Aviation Amsterdam, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Lagos, Leipzig/Halle
EgyptAir Cargo Cairo
Lufthansa Cargo Bangalore, Chennai, Dammam, Frankfurt, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Hyderabad, Jeddah, Kolkata, Mumbai, Riyadh
Saudia Cargo Jeddah, Lagos, N'Djamena, Riyadh
Singapore Airlines Cargo Amsterdam, Brussels, London–Heathrow, Singapore

Statistics

Traffic at Sharjah International Airport[2][23]
YearTotal passengersTotal cargoTotal aircraft movements
1999 1,001,852580,55027,577
2000 948,207475,12225,997
2001 861,478415,58724,431
2002 1,028,624497,01024,803
2003 1,247,458507,64428,017
2004 1,661,941500,92732,334
2005 2,237,646505,39238,699
2006 3,064,396569,51144,182
2007 4,324,313570,36351,314
2008 5,280,445586,67760,813
2009 5,764,098501,82461,451
2011 6,600,000417,11663,737
2012 7,516,538475,11665,975
2013 8,505,268493,40266,247
2014 9,516,600528,25070,559
2015 11,993,887586,19598,786

Ground transport

The airport is 15 km (9.3 mi) away from central Dubai.[5]

Accidents and incidents

  • On 15 December 1997 a Tupolev Tu-154 from Tajik Air Tajik Air Flight 3183 crashed on approach to SHJ. Some 13 km from Sharjah the plane ran into terrain and 85 of the 86 occupants died. One of the seven crew members survived the disaster.[24]
  • On 10 February 2004, Kish Air Flight 7170, operated by a Fokker 50 crashed on approach, killing 43 of its 46 occupants, which consisted of 3 crew and 40 passengers.[25][26]
  • On 7 November 2004 a Boeing 747-230 freighter was damaged beyond repair due to an aborted take-off with insufficient runway remaining. None of the four crew were injured. The take-off was aborted after a report of smoke from the tower and hearing a loud bang in the cockpit.[27]
  • On 21 October 2009, Azza Transport flight 2241, operated by a Boeing 707–320, crashed on take-off. The flight was carrying cargo only and all six crew members were killed.[28][29]

See also

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

  1. 1 2 3 United Arab Emirates AIP Archived 30 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine. (login required)
  2. 1 2 "Airport Statistics". Sharjah International Airport. Archived from the original on 24 March 2012.
  3. ↑ "Information for Prospective Airline". Archived from the original on 30 December 2013.
  4. 1 2 "Contact Info Archived 20 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine.." Air Arabia. Retrieved on 21 June 2010. "Air Arabia (UAE) Air Arabia Head Quarters Sharjah Freight Center (Cargo), near Sharjah International Airport P.O. Box 132 Sharjah, United Arab Emirates"
  5. 1 2 Sobie, Brendan. "Low cost & regionals: Arabian pioneers." Flight International. 23 April 2007. Retrieved on 8 February 2011. "Air Arabia's headquarters is hidden in a dated cargo terminal at Sharjah airport, a 15km (9 miles) drive from central Dubai, which should take 15 minutes but can take up to two hours during rush hour."
  6. ↑ "Stations-S". Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  7. ↑ "Airports and ATC: nothing but the best", Flight International, 30 July 1977, p.354 (online archive version). Retrieved 3 September 2010.
  8. ↑ History of Sharjah. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
  9. ↑ Sharjah – How to Get There. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
  10. ↑ "USAF Historical Research Agency Document 00874269".
  11. ↑ "Yearbook & Directory 2010" (PDF). Sharjah International Airport. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 April 2012. ... the existing runway, which at 4,060 metres is the longest in the Middle East
  12. ↑ sharjahairport.ae - Flight Timetable retrieved 25 March 2017
  13. ↑ Air Arabia begins operations to Asmara from 10 December 2017
  14. ↑ Nagraj, Aarti (23 October 2016). "Air Arabia to launch flights to Baku". Gulf Business. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  15. ↑ 2017, UBM (UK) Ltd. "Air Arabia adds Somalia service from July 2017".
  16. ↑ Liu, Jim (25 December 2017). "Air Arabia adds Moscow Sheremetyevo service from Feb 2018". Routesonline. Retrieved 25 December 2017.
  17. ↑ Air Arabia begin summer seasonal service to Bodrum
  18. ↑ "Air Arabia adds seasonal Gabala service in S18". routesonline. 3 January 2018. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  19. ↑ chamwings.com - Where we fly retrieved 9 September 2018
  20. 1 2 "IndiGo to have 1,000 flights a day in December". The Economic Times. 6 November 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  21. ↑ Liu, Jim (3 October 2017). "SCAT expands Aktau routes in W17". Routesonline. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  22. ↑ Borak, Mert (5 September 2018). "Turkish Airlines plans Sharjah launch in April 2019". Routesonline. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  23. ↑ Report), (Staff. "Sharjah airport records 14% growth in passengers". www.khaleejtimes.com.
  24. ↑ AviationSafety.net database on EY85281, retrieved 9 May 2009
  25. ↑ Khaleej Times Online: article about Kish Air crash
  26. ↑ "AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT 01/04" (PDF). General Civil Aviation Authority of the UAE. Retrieved 21 August 2009.
  27. ↑ AviationSafety.net database on plane:TF-APR, retrieved 9 May 2009
  28. ↑ "Six dead as cargo plane crashes at Sharjah Airport". Arabian Business. Retrieved 21 October 2009.
  29. ↑ "UAE crashed cargo plane owned by Sudan's Azza Air". Reuters. 21 October 2009. Retrieved 21 October 2009.

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