King Hussein International Airport

(Redirected from Aqaba Airport) International airport in Aqaba, Jordan

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King Hussein International Airport
مطار الملك حسين الدولي
Maṭār al-Malik Ḥusayn al-Duwalī

IATA: AQJ
ICAO: OJAQ

Summary

Airport type

Public

Operator

Aqaba Airports Company

Serves

Aqaba, Jordan

Focus city for

Royal Jordanian

Elevation AMSL

173 ft / 53 m

Coordinates

29°36′41.83″N 35°1′5.04″E / 29.6116194°N 35.0180667°E / 29.6116194; 35.0180667

Website

www.aac.jo

Map

AQJLocation of airport in Jordan

Runways

Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
01/19	9,842	3,000	Asphalt

Statistics (2023)

Passengers	309,000

Aqaba Airport (IATA: AQJ, ICAO: OJAQ), also known as King Hussein Int'l Airport (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.

Location

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 a 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. Just across the border in Israel and nominally serving Eilat a new airport called Ramon Airport opened in 2019 despite earlier proposals to jointly develop airport infrastructure in the region following the Israel Jordan Peace Treaty of 1994.

Operations

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. It operates about 10 flights a week to Amman, though extras are frequently scheduled, sometimes to coincide with passenger changeover on cruise ships. The airline operates Embraer E175 Regional Jets that undertake the journey in 45 minutes. The airline also undertakes about six charter flights to Europe, with European charter airlines adding a further dozen.

Facilities

The airport has a single 28,000 sq ft (2,600 m) 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. The airport has 4 check-in desks, 2 gates, a cargo building and a cargo apron together with a parallel taxiway. The airport has one baggage claim belt, 200 short-term parking spaces, a post office, bank, cafeterias, VIP lounge, duty-free shop, and gift shops, and a clinic.

The airport includes also buildings for the Ayla Aviation Academy, the Aero Wings for Industry's assembly plant for light planes, the Jordan Private Jets Services (JPJets)'s private jet terminal, and the Al Baddad International Group's maintenance centre. A new cargo terminal (6000 m) and a new cargo apron (220 m × 600 m) opened in January 2005. There are 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 also regular visitors on land-away cross country training exercises.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Aqaba Airport:

Airlines	Destinations
Air Cairo	Seasonal: Cairo
Edelweiss Air	Seasonal: Zürich (resumes 30 March 2025)
Royal Jordanian	Amman–Queen Alia
Turkish Airlines	Istanbul
Wizz Air	Abu Dhabi