- Sharjah International Airport
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Sharjah International Airport
مطار الشارقة الدولي
IATA: SHJ – ICAO: OMSJ Location of airport in UAE
SHJSummary Airport type Military/Public Operator Sharjah International Airport Location Sharjah Hub for Elevation AMSL 111 ft / 34 m Coordinates 25°19′43″N 055°31′02″E / 25.32861°N 55.51722°E Runways Direction Length Surface ft m 12/30 12,303 3,750 Asphalt Statistics (2009) Passengers 5,764,098 Sharjah International Airport (Arabic: مطار الشارقة الدولي) (Urdu:شارجہ بین الاقوامی ہوائی اڈا) (IATA: SHJ, ICAO: OMSJ) is located in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
Sharjah Airport is the second largest Middle East Airfreight Hub in terms of cargo tonnage, according to official 2009 statistics from Airports Council International. Ground services company, Sharjah Aviation Services, handled 421,398 tonnes in 2009 - a 16.1% increase year on year.
Sharjah International Airport is home base of the low-cost carrier Air Arabia. The headquarters of Air Arabia is in the Sharjah Freight Center,[1] on the property of the airport.[2] in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.[1] The center is an old cargo terminal.[2]
The airport is 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) away from central Dubai; a drive that ought to take 15 minutes can take up to two hours in rush hour traffic.[2]
Contents
History
The current Sharjah Airport was built in the 1970s and was opened on 1 January 1977, replacing an airport closer to the city that had been opened in 1932 for use by Imperial Airways and which was subsequently used by the RAF until 14 December 1971.[3] 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.[4][5][6] The airport was used by the United States Air Force 926th Tactical Fighter Group during Operation Desert Shield/Storm.[7] 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.
Airlines and destinations
Airlines Destinations African Express Airways Aden, Berbera, Mogadishu, Nairobi Air Algérie Seasonal: Algiers Air Arabia Ahmedabad, Aleppo, Alexandria-El Nouzha, Almaty, Amman-Queen Alia, Assiut, Bahrain, Bangalore, Beirut, Casablanca, Chennai, Chittagong, Coimbatore, Colombo, Damascus, Dammam, Delhi, Dhaka, Doha, Goa, Hyderabad, Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen, Jaipur, Jeddah, Kabul, Kandahar, Karachi, Kathmandu, Kharkiv, Khartoum, Kochi, Kozhikode, Kuwait, Kiev-Boryspil, Latakia, Luxor, Moscow-Domodedovo, Mumbai, Muscat, Nairobi, Nagpur, Najaf, Peshawar, Qassim, Riyadh, Samara, Sana'a, Sohag, Tehran-Imam Khomeini, Thiruvananthapuram, Yanbu, Yekaterinburg Air Blue Islamabad, Lahore Air India Amritsar, Kochi, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram Air India Express Kochi, Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram Anikay Air Bishkek Aria Tour Bandar Abbas AVE.com Chelyabinsk, Samara BH Air Seasonal: Sofia Condor Frankfurt EgyptAir Cairo Jet Airways Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram Jubba Airways Mogadishu Kam Air Kabul Kish Air Bandar Abbas, Kish Island Kuban Airlines Krasnodar Mark Air Karaganda Mihin Lanka Colombo Onur Air Istanbul-Ataturk Nas Air Jeddah, Medina, Riyadh Pakistan International Airlines Islamabad, Sialkot Primera Air Stockholm-Arlanda Royal Falcon Amman-Marka Saudi Arabian Airlines Jeddah, Medina, Muscat Shaheen Air Peshawar, Sialkot South East Airlines Seasonal: Makhachkala Sudan Airways Khartoum Tajik Air Dushanbe Uzbekistan Airways Tashkent Cargo airlines
Airlines Destinations Avient Aviation Accra, Kano, Kinshasa, Lagos, Ouagadougou, Pointe-Noire British Gulf International Airlines Baghdad, Kandahar Click Airways Baghdad, Bagram, Kabul, Kandahar, Bishkek, Djibouti EgyptAir Cargo Cairo Etihad Crystal Cargo
operated by World Airways CargoAbu Dhabi, Kabul Kalitta Air Amsterdam, Bahrain Lufthansa Cargo Frankfurt Martinair Cargo Amsterdam, Bahrain, Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Chennai, Delhi, Doha, Hong Kong, Muscat, Riyadh, Singapore Saudi Arabian Airlines Cargo Jeddah, Riyadh Singapore Airlines Cargo Amsterdam, Atlanta, Bangalore, Brussels, Chennai, Copenhagen, Dhaka, Hanoi, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Luanda, Nairobi, Singapore Yanda Airlines Coimbatore, Pune Statistics
The number of passengers passing through Sharjah International Airport has drastically increased in the past decade.[8]
Growth in traffic at Sharjah International Airport Year Total Passengers Total Cargo Total Aircraft Movements 1999 1,001,852 580,550 27,577 2000 948,207 475,122 25,997 2001 861,478 415,587 24,431 2002 1,028,624 497,010 24,803 2003 1,247,458 507,644 28,017 2004 1,661,941 500,927 32,334 2005 2,237,646 505,392 38,699 2006 3,064,396 569,511 44,182 2007 4,324,313 570,363 51,314 2008 5,280,445 586,677 60,813 2009 5,764,098 501,824 61,451 Incidents and accidents
- On 15 December 1997 a Tupolev Tu-154 from 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.[9]
- 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 6 crew and 40 passengers.[10][11]
- On 7 November 2004 a Boeing 747-230 Freighter was damaged beyond repair due to an aborted take-off with insufficient length runway remaining. None of the 4 crew were injured. The take-off was aborted after a report of smoke from the tower and hearing a loud bang in the cockpit.[12]
- 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 were killed.[13][14]
References
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.- ^ a b "Contact Info." 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"
- ^ a b c Sobie, Brendan. "Low cost & regionals: Arabian pioneers." Flight International. April 23, 2007. Retrieved on February 8, 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."
- ^ Stations-S
- ^ "Airports and ATC: nothing but the best", Flight International, 30 July 1977, p.354 (online archive version). Retrieved 3 September 2010.
- ^ History of Sharjah. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
- ^ Sharjah - How to Get There. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
- ^ USAF Historical Research Agency Document 00874269
- ^ statistics on the official site[dead link]
- ^ AviationSafety.net database on EY85281, retrieved 9 May 2009
- ^ Khaleej Times Online: article about Kish Air crash
- ^ "AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT 01/04". General Civil Aviation Authority of the UAE. http://www.skybrary.aero/bookshelf/books/677.pdf. Retrieved 21 August 2009.
- ^ AviationSafety.net database on plane:TF-APR, retrieved 9 May 2009
- ^ "Six dead as cargo plane crashes at Sharjah Airport". Arabian Business. http://www.arabianbusiness.com/571237-cargo-plane-crashes-at-sharjah-airport. Retrieved 21 October 2009.
- ^ "UAE crashed cargo plane owned by Sudan's Azza Air". Reuters. 21 October 2009. http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKLL45439920091021. Retrieved 21 October 2009.
External links
- Sharjah Airport
- Airport information for OMSJ at World Aero Data. Data current as of October 2006.Source: DAFIF.
- Airport information for OMSJ at Great Circle Mapper. Source: DAFIF (effective Oct. 2006).
- Current weather for OMSJ at NOAA/NWS
- Accident history for SHJ at Aviation Safety Network
Categories:- Airports in the United Arab Emirates
- Airports established in 1977
- Sharjah
- Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces
- USAAF Air Transport Command Airfields - Middle East
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