As air travel becomes cheaper and more accessible, new airports are springing up in different countries that are larger and meet the increased needs of passengers and carriers, as well as expanding existing ones. Sometimes the largest air hubs in the world can easily accommodate entire states (albeit small ones).
Today, the King Fahd International Airport, located twenty kilometers from the Arabian city of Dammam, is considered the largest.
In fairness, the Arabs do not save space for airports - there are four more airports of similar size in the kingdom.
The total area occupied by King Fahd Airport exceeds 776 square kilometers, 11 km more than nearby Bahrain! The main building of the airport is also the largest passenger terminal in the world - 327,000 square meters.
Interestingly, in terms of passenger traffic, this air hub, where the national airline Saudi Aramco has its own terminal for sending employees to Yanbu, Shaiba and Tanayib, is only the third in the country: 10.7 million people use it annually against almost 18 million for competitors in first place.
Future-proof conversion
The airport was named after the monarch King Fahd, who ruled the country between 1982 and 2005, although the design phase began as early as 1976. In general, the construction took 7 years, from 1983 to 1990. However, even after the opening in 1990, the airport was closed to the civilian public for quite a long time - it was used as an air base by the American military: fighters and bombers took off from here during the Gulf War, as well as operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Federal Yugoslavia in 1995-1999.
The "Allied Force" was the last military operation in which the future King Fahd Airport was involved. At the same time, in 1999, by order of the authorities, all civilian flights were transferred here from Dhahran International Airport - it was decided to convert it into a base for their own aircraft (although the Americans were also allocated a solid piece that fully satisfies their needs).
Today, Fahda Airport is a conglomerate of two four-kilometer-long universal runways, located more than 2 km apart. In addition, there are several dozen taxiways.
The airport has three terminals:
- The first, the largest, is intended for the general public,
- The second is used by the state oil company,
- The third is a high-security facility under state protection, designed to meet the needs of the numerous (more than 900 princes and princesses alone!) royal dynasty of Saud.
Fahd Airport was the first in the country to equip a recreation area with a food court, and most importantly, the first Middle Eastern airport with duty-free shops! This obvious advantage does not lose its significance, although it pales a little against the background of other attractions - take, for example, an indoor green garden with an area of more than 20 hectares (and this is in the middle of the desert!), or a mosque designed for more than two thousand believers.
Interestingly, the mosque is located above the car park, users can go upstairs to fulfill their religious needs using one of the 4 escalators, 3 lifts or 7 regular stairs.
Double counting
Lets look at the most interesting part. The largest airport in the world is actually not the biggest! It's all about how to count. If we use the traditional calculation method and talk about the territory used for development, then a little less than 37 will remain from 776 sq. km - all the rest is listed with the airport on paper, it regularly pays taxes for this colossal territory, but does not use it - so far. Earth is just waiting in the wings for expansion, which most experts believe is inevitable.
The thing is that Fahd Airport plays a huge role in the economic life of not only the Eastern Province of the kingdom, but also the entire region as a whole: it is a large employer, local companies enjoy preferential conditions for transshipment of goods (this makes competitors and representatives of the World Trade Organization grumble, but what will they do?). This is not to mention the fact that the airport has become one of the most important transport hubs in the region, connecting the Middle East with the countries of Europe, Eastern and Southern Africa, India, China, Japan, attracting a million tourists every year and contributing to the intensification of international trade.
So it will grow, just give it time. And who knows, perhaps after 2030 it will compete for the most delicious international airlines not with the airports of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, but with the promising air terminal of the innovative city of the future NEOM, which the Saudi monarchy is building in the middle of the desert in the western part of the country!
What about the largest airport in the world? If we take not the common, but the actually used territory as a starting point, then the palm of leadership leaves the Middle East region and goes to the United States, where we will crown it with the Denver International Airport with a total area of 141 square kilometers (by the way, now the owners of the air hub are negotiating with the state government and 11 private owners to buy out new land for development; if everything is successful, the total area of the Denver airport will reach 176 square kilometers).
