Hamad International Airport (HIA) announced that it has served a record 38,786,422 passengers in 2019, which is the most number of passengers it has served since the start of its operations in 2014, making “2019” HIA’s most successful year yet. This also shows a year-on-year growth of 12.44% compared to passenger numbers in 2018.
Eight new passenger destinations were added to HIA’s global network in 2019 which were Davao- Philippines, Rabat- Morocco, Izmir-Turkey, Gaborone- Botswana, Langkawi- Malaysia, Mogadishu- Somalia, Malta and Lisbon- Portugal. Three new cargo destinations were also added to HIA’s network which are namely Istanbul, New York and Almaty.
Fifteen airlines operating at HIA increased their weekly flight frequencies including Kuwait Airways, Salam Air, Philippine Airlines, Oman Air and Air India Express. HIA also welcomed two new airline partners, namely, Air India and Tarco Aviation. This lead to HIA handling a total of 232,917 aircraft movements in 2019, which is 5.57% more than the previous year.
HIA announced its multi-phased airport expansion plan in 2019. Phase A of the expansion is set to comprise of a central concourse linking concourses D and E and will increase the airport’s capacity to more than 53 million passengers annually by 2022. Phase B, which will be completed after 2022, will extend concourses D and E to further enhance the airport’s capacity to more than 60 million passengers annually. The expansion project will also feature a 10,000 sqm indoor tropical garden, a 268 sqm water feature, 11,720 sqm of landscaped retail and F&B space and 9,000 sqm of world-class Al Mourjan lounge.
Source: Hamad International Airport