Article from BTNews 20 JANUARY 2020
Biggest year yet for Hamad International
Among airport results announced this month, Qatar’s Hamad International Airport (below) revealed it served a record 38.8m passengers last year, the highest number since the facility opened in 2014. The total shows year-on-year growth of 12.4% compared to passenger numbers in 2018.
Eight new passenger destinations were added to the airport’s global network in 2019 – Davao, Rabat, Izmir, Gaborone, Langkawi, Mogadishu, Malta and Lisbon. Three new cargo destinations were also added – Istanbul, New York and Almaty.
Of the airlines operating at Hamad International, 15 increased their weekly flight frequencies including Kuwait Airways, Salam Air, Philippine Airlines, Oman Air and Air India Express. Two new carriers, Air India and Tarco Aviation, joined the line-up.
Chief operating officer Badr Mohammed Al Meer said: “Last year was a spectacular one for HIA as the gateway to some of the world’s biggest sporting events including the IAAF World Athletics Championships and the FIFA Club World Cup.
“Looking ahead, we’re focused on increasing our operational capacity through our major expansion project which is a vital part of the airport’s rapid growth and the country’s preparations to host the 2022 World Cup and beyond.”
HIA announced its airport expansion plan in 2019 with the first phase comprising a central concourse linking concourses D and E to increase the airport’s capacity to more than 53m passengers a year by 2022.
OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)
All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum