King Hussein International Airport (Aqaba)

 airport, international airport

Aqaba Airport (also known as King Hussein Int´l Airport (IATA: AQJ, ICAO: OJAQ)) (Arabic: مطارالملك الحسين الدولي‎) is an airport located in the vicinity of Industrial City (Aqaba International Industrial Estate - مدينة العقبة الصناعية الدولية), northern suburb of Aqaba in Jordan. The location of Aqaba is unusual, for within a 15 miles (24 km) radius there are three other countries, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Israel. The airport has a single runway equipped with category 1 instrument landing system (ILS). Thanks to its normally excellent weather conditions, the airport is rarely closed, though strong southerly winds bring sandstorms across the Red Sea from Egypt.

The airport has a single 28,000 sq ft (2,600 m²) terminal building with just one departure gate and one baggage carousel, though the building is being extended. The facilities can cope when there is one aircraft to be handled, but on some occasions when there are three aircraft being turned around simultaneously things can become somewhat crowded. The capacity of the Terminal at present is 1.5 million passengers a year. There is also separate buildings for General Aviation and a Royal Pavilion - King Abdullah II owns a palace along the shoreline and regularly visits. The Royal Jordanian Air Academy are regular visitors on land-away cross country training exercises. Annual passenger figures have risen from around 20,000 per year in the early days to over 90,000 in the year 2000. There are currently around 3,000 aircraft movements a year. A significant proportion of these are training flights, including those of the Royal Jordanian Air Force.

The largest operator at Aqaba is Royal Jordanian Airlines. It operates about ten flights a week to Amman, though extras are frequently scheduled, sometimes to coincide with passenger changeover on cruise ships. The airline operate Embraer E175 Regional Jets that undertake the journey in 45 minutes These jets have replaced the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft used by the Royal Wings subsidiary and have a total of 72 seats, 10 of which are business class. The airline also undertakes about six charter flights to Europe, with European charter airlines adding a further dozen. German carriers are particularly well represented.

Just a few km from Aqaba is the Israeli tourist resort of Eilat, which attracts many European tourists. Eilat Airport is within city limits and surrounded by built up areas. Its normal traffic consists of ATR and DCH-7 aircraft, and although Arkia and El Al sometimes operate Boeing 737 and 757 into the airport, foreign tourists are normally flown to Ovda Airport, which is located 60 km (40 miles) from Elat and predominantly used by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

Aqaba is an airport that can handle the largest jets. Photography is not permitted at the airport. Even though it does have a viewing gallery it is almost impossible to see anything because of sand storms that cling to the windows.