Hamad International Airport

Hamad International Airport (مطار حمد الدولي, ) is an international airport in Qatar, and the home base of the national flag carrier airline, Qatar Airways. Located east of the capital, Doha, it replaced the nearby Doha International Airport as Qatar's principal and main national airport and one of the busiest airports in the Middle East.

Formerly known as New Doha International Airport (NDIA) during construction, Hamad International Airport was originally scheduled to open in 2008, but after a series of costly delays, the airport finally opened six years overdue on 30 April 2014 with a ceremonial Qatar Airways flight landing from nearby Doha International. Qatar Airways and all other carriers formally relocated to the new airport on 27 May 2014. The airport is named after the previous Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.

Planning and construction
By the end of the 20th century, Doha International Airport (DIA) was over 70 years old and in need of major upgrades. However, lack of available land meant DIA expansion would be difficult, especially the inability to add a much-needed second runway. The planning started for a new state-of-the-art airport in 2003 while the construction began in 2005. The site of the airport (terminal and runway) lies 5 km east of the older Doha International Airport. It is spread over an area of 9000 acre, and was set to initially serve airlines that will not utilize lounge access.

Hamad International Airport was designed to cater for a projected ongoing increase in the volume of traffic. The airport has an initial annual capacity of 29 million passengers, three times the current volume. Upon completion, it will be able to handle 93 million passengers per year, making it the second largest airport in the region after Dubai. It is also expected to handle 320,000 aircraft movements and 2 million tonnes of cargo annually. The check-in and retail areas are expected to be 12 times larger than those at the current airport. The airport will be two-thirds the size of Doha city. The airport has an oasis theme. Many of the buildings have a water motif, with wave-styled roofs and desert plants growing in recycled water. The airport is built over 36 km2, half of which is on reclaimed land.

The Steering Committee awarded the contract for the development of the airport to Bechtel. The contract includes the design, construction management and project management of the facilities. The terminal and concourses were designed by the architecture firm HOK. Engineering, Procurement and Construction contract for Phase I and II were undertaken by Turkish TAV Construction and Japanese Taisei Corporation.

Opening


Cargo operations began from 1 December 2013, with an inaugural flight by Qatar Airways Cargo arriving from Europe. The original soft launch on 2 April 2013 was cancelled just a few hours prior, and was postponed indefinitely due to unsatisfactory safety related issues that needed further reviewing taking nine months to address. Hamad International Airport was then set to begin passenger operations in January 2014, with a soft opening.

Qatar Airways threatened a $600 million lawsuit against the joint venture contractor Lindner Depa Interiors for delaying the opening of the airport by failing to complete its lounges on time; LDI stated that it was delayed due to inadequate site access. Qatar Airways later blamed Bechtel for the opening delay in April 2013, citing failures to meet regulatory requirements.

Hamad International Airport (HIA) recently commemorated its 10-year milestone, signifying a decade of successful operations since its official inauguration in May 2014.

Operations
Hamad International Airport finally began passenger operations on 30 April 2014, with ten initial airlines operating. Qatar Airways and remaining airlines started operations to Hamad Airport on 27 May 2014 at 09:00 (Qatar time).

An expansion plan announced in September 2015 called for an extension of the check-in area, an expansion of concourses D and E into a 1.3 km long concourse, a new passenger amenity area in the D/E complex with lounges, shops and restaurants. As part of this expansion plan, the Doha Metro was extended to the airport with the opening of the red line airport branch in December 2019.

In 2016, the airport was named the 50th busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic, serving 37,283,987 passengers, a 20.2% increase from 2015.

In 2019, the airport witnessed a 12.4% increase in annual passenger traffic. More than 38.8 million passengers arrived at the airport in 2019, up from 34.5 million in 2018.

Forced examinations of women passengers
On 2 October 2020, a newborn female baby was found abandoned in a bin. In response to this, the authorities ordered females of childbearing age from 10 different planes to disembark and undergo a forced vaginal examination. The Qatari Prime Minister issued an apology and ordered an investigation. The Australian government "registered its strong disapproval and outrage" at the treatment of Australian women who were subjected to compulsory intimate medical examinations at Doha airport. On 30 October 2020, a report by The Guardian stated the apology of Qatari government saying “sincerest apology for what some female travelers went through as a result of the measures” adding “While the aim of the urgently decided search was to prevent the perpetrators of the horrible crime from escaping, the state of Qatar regrets any distress or infringement on the personal freedoms of any traveler caused by this action.” As of the beginning of 2021, none of the women who were searched have been contacted by the Qatari authorities; subsequently, five Australian women launched legal action against Qatar Airways and two other government bodies over the incident in late 2021. The Federal Court of Australia dismissed the case in April 2024, after finding that the searches did not happen onboard a Qatar Airways aircraft nor were carried out by the airline's employees. Following ongoing backlash, in September 2023, Qatar Airways' senior vice-president of global sales Matt Raos asserted that the 2020 incident was "a one off and an isolated incident" during an Australian Senate inquiry.

Slave labor
An investigation by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) as well as the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) concluded that slave labour was significantly used in constructing Hamad International Airport.

Terminal 1

 * Concourse A has 10 passenger gates connected to jet bridges and is located west of the check-in area and Main Terminal. Two of the gates are designed to accommodate the Airbus A380.
 * Concourse B has 10 passenger gates connected to jet bridges and is located east of the check-in area. It has opened on April 30, 2014 with 10 airlines transferring operations over from Doha International Airport. Two of the gates are built to accommodate the Airbus A380. There is a small coffee shop located at the end of Concourse B, as well as smoking rooms, family areas, and an express duty-free store.
 * Concourse C has 13 passenger gates connected to jet bridges, two of them built specifically for the Airbus A380. There are 10 remote gates without a fixed jet bridge link connected to Concourse C. This Concourse has opened on 27 May 2014.
 * Concourse D is fully operational. Gates 1–4 are on the first floor and Gates 18–24 are on the ground floor. (Gates 2 and 4 will be permanently closed due to the expansion of HIA)
 * Concourse E is fully operational. Gates 1–4 are on the first floor and Gates 18–24 are on the ground floor. (Gates 2 and 4 will be permanently closed due to the expansion of HIA)

Concourses D and E are due to be extended with a possible Concourse F although plans are still to be finalised. Terminal 1 features First (called Al Safwa First Class Lounge) and Business Class (called Al Mourjan Business Class Lounge) lounges, which were opened by Qatar Airways CEO, Akbar Al Baker, on 20 June 2014. Since 2016, a cable-drawn Cable Liner has connected Halls A and B over a distance of around 500 m indoors with Halls D and E, with availability 24 hours a day.

Lamp Bear
The most prominent figure inside the airport is a giant bronze statue of a teddy bear with its head in a lamp. The untitled sculpture, often known as "Lamp Bear", is one of three creations by Swiss artist Urs Fischer and is on display at the grand foyer of the airport's duty-free shopping hall. Standing at seven meters tall and weighing approximately 18-20 tons, the statue was previously displayed at the Seagram Building's plaza in New York City before being purchased by a member of the Qatari royal family at a Christie's auction for US$6.8 million.

In 2018 the airport added a new sculpture in their terminal, called Small Lie by American artist Kaws, which was a donation from Qatar Museums.

Expansion
There were plans to expand the terminal in order to accommodate the increased passengers numbers of the FIFA 2022 World Cup, and to keep up with Qatar Airways continued passenger growth. The airport handled 34.5 million passengers in 2018 and this is expected to rise to 53 million by 2020.

In 2023, a new central building located between the existing Concourse's D & E featuring a 10,000 m2 tropical garden with a 268 meter tall water feature opened, bearing extreme similarities to the Singapore Changi Airport's Jewel structure that was designed and built at least a decade prior. The project adds 11,720 m2 of retail and F&B space, and an expanded transfer area. A new Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Class Lounge occupies the mezzanine level, covering 9,000 m2. In addition, concourses D & E will be lengthened to accommodate nine additional wide-body aircraft stands.

Runways
The airport has two parallel runways, located 2 km from each other, which are designed for simultaneous take-offs and landings. The first is 4850 x and is considered to be the longest runway in Western Asia, and also one of the longest runways in the world. The second runway is 4250 x.

Passenger
The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Doha:


 * Biman Bangladesh Airlines' flight from Doha to Dhaka makes a stop at Sylhet. However, the flight from Dhaka to Doha is non-stop.

Awards
Hamad International Airport is currently rated as the "World's Best Airport" and "Best Airport in the Middle East" by Skytrax.

Metro
The airport has its own station on the Red Line of Doha Metro, connecting it directly with Downtown Doha.

Bus
The passenger terminal is additionally connected to its nearby surroundings by four regional bus lines, of which one (757) also runs towards Downtown Doha.