Kabul International Airport
Kabul International Airport (Formerly known as Hamid Karzai International Airport from 2014 to 2021; IATA: KBL, ICAO: OAKB) is an airport located about five kilometres (3 mi) from the center of Kabul in Afghanistan. It is owned by the Government of Afghanistan and operated by UAE-based GAAC Holding on behalf of the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation. It serves as one of Afghanistan's main international airports and is capable of housing over one hundred aircraft.
Kabul International Airport Pashto: د کابل نړیوال هوايي ډګر Dari: فرودگاه بین المللی کابل | |||||||||||
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The flightline at Kabul International Airport in January 2012 | |||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
| Owner | Government of Afghanistan | ||||||||||
| Operator | GAAC Holding | ||||||||||
| Serves | Kabul and nearby provinces | ||||||||||
| Location | Kabul, Afghanistan | ||||||||||
| Hub for | |||||||||||
| Built | 1960 | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 1,791 m / 5,877 ft | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 34°33′57″N 069°12′47″E | ||||||||||
| Maps | |||||||||||
A 2015 United States Air Force diagram of the airport | |||||||||||
KBL/OAKB Location of the airport in Afghanistan KBL/OAKB KBL/OAKB (South Asia) KBL/OAKB KBL/OAKB (West and Central Asia) KBL/OAKB KBL/OAKB (Asia) | |||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||
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Source: Landings.com, AIP Afghanistan | |||||||||||
The airport was locally named as Khwaja Rawash Airport. It was renamed in 2014 in honor of former President Hamid Karzai. The decision was made by the National Assembly of Afghanistan and the Cabinet of the then President Ashraf Ghani. It was given its current name in 2021 by the Taliban.
The airport has been the primary gateway to Afghanistan and is located at high altitude, surrounded by the mountains of the Hindu Kush. For many years, it has been the base of Ariana Afghan Airlines and Kam Air. A new international terminal was opened in the 2000s, and, at the time, a number of military bases were also built around the airport, which were used by the United States Armed Forces and NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and later the Resolute Support Mission (RS). The Afghan Air Force also had a base there, while the Afghan National Police provided security inside the passenger terminals.
Prior to the withdrawal of NATO's military forces in mid-2021, the airport provided scheduled flights to and from Pakistan, India, Iran, China, Turkey, Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and the Persian Gulf region. As of June 2016, the most frequently serviced destination from the airport was Dubai in the UAE, with no fewer than four passenger airlines flying the route, and some with multiple daily flights.
After the evacuation of NATO's forces on August 31, 2021, all civilian flights were canceled and suspended until further notice. A week before that the airport's Abbey Gate had been attacked in a suicide bombing by Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISIS-K). Following the Taliban takeover, the airport was closed to the public for about a week. On September 26, the Taliban announced that the resulting debris at the airport had been cleaned up, and asked international airlines to resume flights.