IKAC Focuses on Construction of Iran's Biggest Airport Terminal

EghtesadOnline: After the recent inauguration of Salaam Terminal, Imam Khomeini Airport Company is already moving forward with a new mega project.

News ID: ۷۴۷۶۸۸

26 June 2019

“Iranshahr Terminal, with a planned capacity of handling 25 million air passengers per year in its first construction phase, needs a hefty investment of €2.5 billion,” Managing Director of IKAC Ali Rostami said.

According to the official, to fund the construction of "Iran’s biggest air terminal", IKAC is counting on Iranian private sector investors as well as foreign investors, the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development's news service reported.

“The first phase of the terminal will create a capacity of 25 million people per year and will become operational in five years,” Rostami said, adding that Iranshahr will offer Class A services on par with international standards, according to Financial Tribune.

"Iranshahr Terminal will be a modern, smart terminal with excellent services," he added.

The final phase of the terminal will increase the capacity to 110 million passengers annually.

IKAC has asked the government to help attract financing for the airport terminal.

Rostami noted that the goal is to turn IKAC into the No. 1 hub of cargo transport and the second biggest hub of passenger transport in the region.

IKIA Capacity Rose 80% With Salaam Terminal

The newly-inaugurated Salaam Terminal at the Imam Khomeini International Airport was officially inaugurated in the presence of President Hassan Rouhani and Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami.

The terminal officially launched its first flight on June 22 at 8 a.m. to Dubai, the UAE.

Hassan Khoshkhou, an official with IKAC, told Fars News Agency that the flight to Dubai is scheduled to be operated daily at Salaam Terminal.

The plane transported 200 people, including passengers and the flight crew.

Salaam Terminal has been exclusively designed by domestic experts and designers. It has a capacity to transport five million passengers per year, which has increased IKIA's overall capacity by 80%.

IKIA's Terminal 1 has been handling passenger traffic up until the recent inauguration of Salaam Terminal, operating international flights only as domestic routes are handled at Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport.

Part of the traffic will now be diverted to Salaam Terminal and domestic flights can now be operated at Terminal 1. The latter is expected to handle domestic flights between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m., when Mehrabad Airport is barred from operating flights.

In the fiscal 2017-18, IKIA hosted over nine million passengers.

The construction of Salaam Terminal started 10 years ago in the fiscal March 2009-10 with the collaboration of Imam Khomeini Airport Company and Mostazafan Foundation.

All the hajj pilgrimage flights at Imam Khomeini Int’l Airport to Saudi Arabia this year (started March 21) will be operated from Salaam Terminal.

Iranian flag carrier airline company Iran Air will operate all the hajj flights this year by using its own fleet of airplanes.

As per a decades-old agreement between Tehran and Riyadh, Iranian and Saudi airlines each operated half of the hajj flights every year. However, Saudi Arabia recently announced that it won't operate Iranians’ hajj flights and Iran Air is obliged to fly its own aircraft and not those it has leased or rented to Jeddah and Medina.

As many as 86,550 Iranian pilgrims will travel to Saudi Arabia for the hajj pilgrimage this year.

According to Hassan Qasemi, deputy managing director of the Iranian flag carrier Iran Air, airports in the cities of Ahvaz, Yazd, Rasht, Birjand, Isfahan, Bandar Abbas, Bushehr, Gorgan, Sari, Kerman, Tabriz, Mashhad, Zahedan, Urmia, Kermanshah and Shiraz will also operate hajj flights along with IKAC’s Salaam Terminal.

Imam Khomeini International Airport registered 47,446 takeoffs and landings in the last fiscal year that ended March 20, 2019, to register a 19% decline.

More than 7.27 million passengers and 141,704 tons of cargos were transported from the airport during the period to rank third on the list of Iran’s busiest airports, marking a 19% and 14% decline YOY.

IKIA operates the biggest share of international flights in Iran. It has been distinguished as the third fastest-growing major airport in the world.

A study by Routes Online shows the airport grew in terms of passenger numbers by 48.6% during the first half of 2018 to 3.93 million, helped by Ata Airlines, following the rise in frequencies to Istanbul Ataturk.

Operated by Iran Airports Company, IKIA is located 30 kilometers southwest of Iran's capital city Tehran.