Ashgabat International Airport

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Ashgabat International Airport
Saparmyrat Türkmenbaşy halkara aeroporty
250px
IATA: ASB – ICAO: UTAA
ASB is located in Turkmenistan
ASB
ASB
Location of airport in Turkmenistan
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner Government of Turkmenistan
Operator Turkmenistan Airlines
Location Ashgabat
Elevation AMSL 692 ft / 211 m
Coordinates Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Website ashgabatairport.com
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
12L/30R 12,467 3,800 Concrete
12R/30L 9,806 2,989 Concrete
11/29 2,953 900 Asphalt
Source: AIP Turkmenistan[1]

Ashgabat International Airport (IATA: ASB, ICAO: UTAA), formerly known as Saparmurat Türkmenbaşy International Airport, is one of three international airports in Turkmenistan. It is located approximately 10 km (6 mi) northwest of the capital Ashgabat (Ashkhabad). The airport, with its air traffic control tower and a 12,000-foot (3,700 m) long precision approach runway (12L-30R), opened in 1994 and was named after the country's first president, Saparmyrat Niyazov.

History

The airport building opened in 1994 and the terminal has a capacity of 1,600 passengers per hour. There are two artificial runways, equipped with the second category ILS and platform, enabling them to take aircraft of all types. All services of the airport work around the clock.

The airport includes passenger waiting rooms, service passport, customs, border control, a 24-hour reference service, VIP and CIP rooms, a business club, a ticket office (Turkmenistan Airlines), shops, bars, fast-food outlets, currency exchange, a new baggage handling conveyor system, international telephone, a mother and child room and the offices of the airlines (Star Alliance and Turkish Airlines).

Saparmurat Niyazov's planning of the airport

As part of Saparmurat Niyazov's aspiration to transform Turkmenistan into 'the new Kuwait', he sought to construct a distinctive airport. This zeal resulted in the control tower being constructed on the wrong side of the runway. The 'gaudy new terminal' now blocked the view of air traffic controllers as they guided pilots. The builders warned him of this, however, he responded that, "It looks better this way."[2]

  • Stamps of Turkmenistan, 1996 - Saparmyrat International airport, Ashgabat.jpg

    Stamp of 1996

  • Ashgabat Airport (3202977543).jpg

    Ashgabat Airport, 2006

  • Ashgabat Airport (3203828450).jpg

    Interior of Ashgabat Airport, 2006

New airport

The Turkmen government opened an international tender in 2012 for the construction of a new international airport in Ashgabat, to be named "Oguz Han". Polimeks, a Turkish construction company active in Turkmenistan since the late-1990s was declared as the winner of the tender. The project will cost $2.3 billion (€1.7 billion) and features a highly unusual terminal design, a Turkmen bird. The new airport will be able to serve 14 million passengers per year and is scheduled for completion in 2016. It will have the capacity to handle 1,600 passengers per hour. The airport will have a closed-area of 350.000m2 and include a passenger terminal, VIP terminal, cargo terminal with a capacity to handle 200.000 tonnes of freight per year, a new air traffic control tower (ATCT), a maintenance hangar for three narrow-body aircraft, new fuelling stations, catering, fire brigade, flight simulation, repair and maintenance buildings, parking space for 3.000 cars, a civil aviation school as well as a medical center. Once completed, the airport will also have a new 3.800m long runway to serve wide-body, double-deck jet airliners such as the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-8.[3]

Temporary terminal

On 26 March 2014 a small passenger terminal was opened during a ceremony attended by the President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow.[4] The terminal is located on the site of a pre-existing Turkmen SSR airport (after the bus station) down the street №2013 (Cosmonaut Blvd). For the period of construction of the main passenger terminal the temporary terminal took the service of passengers departing and arriving to Ashgabat. After commissioning of the main terminal, the terminal will be used for charter flights.[5]

Airlines and destinations

In Soviet times, the airport was used exclusively for domestic flights. Currently, the airport serves several foreign airlines, operating for both passengers and cargo.

Passenger

Airlines Destinations
Belavia Minsk
China Southern Airlines Ürümqi
flydubai Dubai–International
Lufthansa Baku, Frankfurt
S7 Airlines Moscow–Domodedovo
Turkish Airlines Istanbul–Atatürk
Turkmenistan Airlines Almaty, Amritsar, Balkanabat, Bangkok–Suvarnabhumi, Beijing–Capital, Birmingham, Daşoguz, Delhi, Dubai–International, Frankfurt, Istanbul–Atatürk, London–Heathrow, Mary, Minsk, Moscow–Domodedovo, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Saint Petersburg, Türkmenabat, Türkmenbaşy

Cargo

Airlines Destinations
AeroLogic Frankfurt, Hong Kong
Coyne Airways Tbilisi
Turkish Airlines Cargo Dhaka, Istanbul–Atatürk
Turkmenistan Airlines Abu Dhabi, Brno, Istanbul–Atatürk
Volga Dnepr Stavanger

See also

References

  1. ↑ [1][dead link]
  2. ↑ Ghost Wars, Steve Coll; pg. 303 along with the corresponding footnote on pg. 627.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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