Jeddah Airport or King Abdulaziz International Airport is located to the north of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. The airport was inaugurated in 1981 and called after King Abdul-Aziz Al Saud. It is considered as the busiest airport in Saudi Arabia.
Jeddah Airport resides in an area of 15km and includes housing facilities for airport staff and the Saudi Air Force. It also has a royal terminal, where important personalities arrive to Saudi Arabia. Construction of KAIA began in the year 1974 and ended in 1980. The main terminal at this airport is named as Hajj terminal. It is located in the proximity of the holy city Mecca. The airport gets most of the traffic from pilgrims. It is specially built to support the pilgrimage and rituals of Islam in relation to the annual Hajj. It has facilities and accommodation for 80,000 travellers. Most pilgrims with their family find it comfortable to hire a car and visit Mecca.
A Bangladeshi Engineer by the name Faizur Khan of the firm Owings and Merrill, an architectural company designed the airport. The design of structure is tent like roof building engineered by Horst Berger. The building is based on modules, each containing 21 tents with suspended fiberglass fabric on the pylons with white colored Teflon coating. The pylons are grouped into two blocks each consisting of five modules divided by a landscaped mall. Baggage, customs handling, and other facilities are placed together in the air-conditioned building.
The airport has a specific area known as terminal support area where there is a market like space along with the mosque. It functions like a village inside the airport. The place is naturally sunny and hot so walls for natural ventilation do not enclose Jeddah Airport. Outside the terminals car for rent are available for the passengers to visit the city.
Jeddah Airport is an award-winning airport for its imaginative design and roofing system. The architecture covers a huge space with splendid beauty and elegance. The Hajj terminal is considered amongst the largest air terminals in the world after Hong Kong international airport, Beijing Capital International Airport and Dubai International Airport. Other terminals are designed for exclusive use of Saudi carriers like Sama airlines and Nas Air. The airport today is going through an expansion project. The project aims at increasing the capacity of the airport by introducing lighting, paved areas, and storms water drainage and fuel network systems. Also other facilities for the passengers will be made available at the airport. However, car hire services are well connected to all the destinations in the city.
(4.0 out of 5)
