Sharjah International Airport

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

Sharjah Airport

مطار الشارقة
Summary
Airport typeMilitary/Public
OperatorSharjah Airport
ServesSharjah, United Arab Emirates
Hub for
Time zoneUAE Standard Time (UTC+04:00)
Elevation AMSL116 ft / 35 m
Coordinates25°19′45″N 055°30′58″E
Websitewww.sharjahairport.ae
Map
OMSJ
Location in the UAE
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
12/30 4,060 13,320 Asphalt
Statistics (2015)
Passengers11,993,887
Movements98,786
Cargo tonnage213,348
Sources: UAE AIP[1]
Statistics from Sharjah International Airport[2]

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 31 December 1976. On 20 August 1977 Concorde 202 G-BBDG, which came from Filton and refuelled at Damascus landed at Sharjah Airport. The aircraft also made a short flight display over the city.

The BAe party was headed by Sir Geoffrey Tuttle, which received a great welcome, the whole party were also given watches and a few received magnificent swords as well.[6]

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.[7] 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.[8][9][10]

The airport was used by the United States Air Force 926th Tactical Fighter Group during Operation Desert Shield/Storm.[11] 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][12]

Financial services at the airport include banking, ATMs and exchange centres.[13]

Founded in 1985, Sharjah Airport Travel Agency (SATA) is owned by the Sharjah Airport Authority, Government of Sharjah and has 14 branches in the UAE, including one on the first floor of the main terminal at Sharjah Airport.[14]

There are two prayer rooms available, one in the transit area of the Arrivals Terminal and the other in the ground floor of the Departures Terminal. In addition to this there are mosques in both the East and West Cargo Terminals 3 and 4.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger
Aerial view
Terminal interior
Terminal interior
A British Airways Concorde in Sharjah on 20 August 1977

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Sharjah:[15]

AirlinesDestinations
Air Arabia Abadan, Abha, Ahmedabad, Alexandria–Borg el Arab, Al Jawf, Almaty, Amman–Queen Alia, Asmara,[16] Assiut, Baghdad, Bahrain, Baku,[17] Bangalore, Basra, Beirut, Bishkek,[18] Cairo, Chennai, Chittagong, Coimbatore, Colombo–Bandaranaike, Dammam, Delhi, Dhaka, Erbil, Faisalabad, Gassim, Goa, Grozny, Hargeisa,[19] Hyderabad, Istanbul–Sabiha Gökçen, Izmir, Jaipur, Jeddah, Jizan, Kabul, Karachi, Kathmandu, Khartoum, Kiev–Boryspil, Kochi, Kozhikode, Kuala Lumpur–International,[20] Kuwait, Lamerd, Lar, Mashhad, Medina, Moscow–Domodedovo, Mumbai, Muscat, Multan, Nagpur, Nairobi–Jomo Kenyatta, Najaf, Nur-Sultan, Peshawar, Prague, Quetta, Riyadh, Salalah, Shiraz, Sialkot, Sohag, Sohar, Tabuk, Ta'if, Tbilisi, Tehran–Imam Khomeini, Thiruvananthapuram, Trabzon, Tunis,[18] Vienna,[21] Yanbu, Yerevan
Seasonal: Antalya, Batumi, Bodrum,[22] Qabala,[23] Sarajevo
Airblue Islamabad, Lahore, Multan, Peshawar
Air India Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram
Air India Express Chandigarh, Kannur, Kochi, Kozhikode, Mumbai, Surat, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirappalli, Varanasi
Air Peace Lagos[24]
Cham Wings Airlines Damascus[25]
EgyptAir Cairo
IndiGo Amritsar, Hyderabad, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Thiruvananathpuram
Jazeera Airways Kuwait[26]
Pakistan International Airlines Multan, Peshawar,[27] Sialkot,[28] Turbat
Pegasus Airlines Istanbul–Sabiha Gökçen[29]
Seasonal: Trabzon (begins 13 July 2020)[30]
Rossiya Airlines Seasonal charter: Yekaterinburg
SCAT Airlines Seasonal: Aktau,[31] Almaty, Nur-Sultan
SkyUp Seasonal: Kharkiv, Lviv,[32] Zaporizhia[32]
Syrian Air Damascus
Turkish Airlines Istanbul[33]
Uzbekistan Airways Tashkent

Cargo
AirlinesDestinations
DHL Aviation Amsterdam, Bahrain, Cincinnati, Hong Kong, Lagos, Leipzig/Halle
EgyptAir Cargo Cairo
Ethiopian Cargo Addis Ababa, Liege
Lufthansa Cargo Bangalore, Chennai, Dammam, Frankfurt, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Hyderabad, Jeddah, Kolkata, Mumbai, Riyadh
Singapore Airlines Cargo Amsterdam, Brussels, London–Heathrow, Singapore
UPS Airlines Louisville

Statistics
Traffic at Sharjah International Airport[2][34]
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 Tajikistan Airlines 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.[35]
  • 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.[36][37]
  • 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.[38]
  • On 21 October 2009, Azza Transport Flight 2241, operated by a Boeing 707–320, crashed on take-off. The flight was only carrying cargo and all six crew members were killed.[39][40]

See also

References

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

  1. United Arab Emirates AIP Archived 30 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine (login required)
  2. "Airport Statistics". Sharjah Airport. Archived from the original on 24 March 2012.
  3. "Information for Prospective Airline". Archived from the original on 30 December 2013.
  4. "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. 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. [Brian Trubshaw and Sally Edmondson, 1998 Brian Trubshaw Test Pilot see page 142ISBN 0-7509-1838-1. ]
  7. "Stations-S". Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  8. "Airports and ATC: nothing but the best", Flight International, 30 July 1977, p.354 (online archive version). Retrieved 3 September 2010.
  9. History of Sharjah. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
  10. Sharjah – How to Get There. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
  11. "USAF Historical Research Agency Document 00874269".
  12. "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
  13. "Financial Services | Sharjah Airport". www.sharjahairport.ae. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  14. "Sharjah Airport Travel Agency". ArabianBusiness.com. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  15. sharjahairport.ae - Flight Timetable retrieved 25 March 2017
  16. "Air Arabia begins operations to Asmara from 10 December 2017". Routesonline.com. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
  17. Nagraj, Aarti (23 October 2016). "Air Arabia to launch flights to Baku". Gulf Business. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  18. Liu, Jim (15 May 2019). "Air Arabia schedules additional new routes from July 2019". Routesonline. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  19. 2017, UBM (UK) Ltd. "Air Arabia adds Somalia service from July 2017".CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  20. "Arabia launches direct flights between Sharjah and Kuala Lumpur". Air Arabia. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
  21. Liu, Jim. "Air Arabia schedules Vienna launch in mid-Sep 2019". Routesonline. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  22. "Air Arabia begin summer seasonal service to Bodrum". Routesonline.com. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
  23. "Air Arabia adds seasonal Gabala service in S18". routesonline. 3 January 2018. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  24. https://booking.flyairpeace.com/VARS/Public/b/flightCal.aspx#cal-accordion-0-1
  25. chamwings.com - Where we fly retrieved 9 September 2018
  26. Liu, Jim. "Jazeera adds Sharjah service from April 2020". Routesonline. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  27. https://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/282493/pakistan-international-expands-middle-east-network-from-peshawar-in-1q19/
  28. Liu, Jim. "Pakistan International adds Sialkot – Sharjah service from Nov 2018". Routesonline.
  29. "Pegasus adds Istanbul – Sharjah route from mid-Dec 2018". routesonline. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
  30. Liu, Jim. "Pegasus adds Trabzon – Middle East links in S20". Routesonline. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  31. Liu, Jim (3 October 2017). "SCAT expands Aktau routes in W17". Routesonline. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  32. "SkyUp". skyup.aero.
  33. Borak, Mert (5 September 2018). "Turkish Airlines plans Sharjah launch in April 2019". Routesonline. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  34. Report), (Staff. "Sharjah airport records 14% growth in passengers". www.khaleejtimes.com.
  35. AviationSafety.net database on EY85281, retrieved 9 May 2009
  36. Khaleej Times Online: article about Kish Air crash
  37. "AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT 01/04" (PDF). General Civil Aviation Authority of the UAE. Retrieved 21 August 2009.
  38. AviationSafety.net database on plane:TF-APR, retrieved 9 May 2009
  39. "Six dead as cargo plane crashes at Sharjah Airport". Arabian Business. Retrieved 21 October 2009.
  40. "UAE crashed cargo plane owned by Sudan's Azza Air". Reuters. 21 October 2009. Retrieved 21 October 2009.

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