IIA becomes operational with arrival, departure of several int’l, domestic flights

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad International Airport (IIA) Thursday became operational with the departure and arrival of international and domestic flights.

“By the grace of Allah Almighty, the state-of-the-art IIA has become fully operation today. Several flights departed and arrived at the new airport today as scheduled,” Director General of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Usaid-ur-Rehman told APP.

He expressed the hope that the IIA would give boost to aviation industry in the country. He said the airport was equipped with modern technologies and could be compared with world's best airports.

“We’ve installed top of the line and state-of-the-art system at airport. Its passenger facilitation, baggage handling and traffic management matches international standards” he said.

He said the annual turnover of passengers at the old airport (Benazir Bhutto International Airport) was about 4.5 million but the IIA could accommodate over nine million passengers annually.

“This is the largest airport of the country. It is equipped with modern technologies and facilities for passengers to meet the 21st century challenges. I’m sure it has all the potential to be among top 10 airports of the world,” Deputy Director General of CAA Amir Mehboob said.

He said besides serving nine million passengers the airport was capable to handle 50,000 metric tons cargo every year in its first phase. “The modular design of the airport enables the expansion to serve up to 25 million passengers every year by 2025,” he added.

Amir informed that the IIA had two runways - the one was primary while the other was secondary. The airport’s inside, he said had facilities such as taxiways including six taxi links, three rapid taxi ways and five aprons, including cargo apron.

“This airport has an integrated building management system, which has been designed to keep track and control various systems in passenger terminal building.

"The integrated aircraft stand system installed at the airport allows airport operators to monitor the use of equipment and the apron from a single source,” he said.

Director Planning and Development of CAA, Nadar Sahfi said the airport operations control centre at the IIA was ultramodern with focus on end-to-end processes of operations and bringing together three major operational areas for departing and arriving passengers, baggage and aircraft.