Heydar Aliyev Int'l Airport's passenger traffic up
By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade
In the first five months of 2019, Azerbaijan’s airports carried 1.85 million passengers, Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) said in a message.
Of these, 1.57 million accounted for the capital’s Heydar Aliyev International Airport, which is 10,000 passengers more than the same figure last year.
Within the given period, the leading air carriers of Baku airport - AZAL and Buta Airways - served 649,000 and 177,000 passengers, respectively.
The number of passengers on international flights of Baku airport reached 1.36 million and AZAL’s share in this made up 32.2 percent, while Buta Airways’ share was 13 percent. The share of other airlines during this period hit 54.8 percent.
It is noteworthy that within the period from May 27 to May 30, 2019, in the period of the Europa League final in Baku, Heydar Aliyev International Airport served approximately 600 flights in total.
The number of charter flights was 57 while the number of additional regular flights of airlines such as FlyDubai, AirArabia, SCAT, IsrAir, Jazeera etc. reached 10.
The passenger traffic of Azerbaijan’s main airport during the Europa League final amounted to about 60,000 people in total.
It is also important to note that Heydar Aliyev International Airport prepared a special action plan to receive a large number of aircraft and passengers for the period of the Final. Thus, all conditions were created at Heydar Aliyev International Airport to ensure smooth operation of the flights and flow of many passengers through the terminal.
It is noteworthy that Heydar Aliyev International Airport has a huge experience in this, since in past years Baku became the host of numerous exciting competitions such as Eurovision Song Contest in 2012, 1st European Games in 2015, 4th Islamic Solidarity Games in 2017, Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grands Prix, etc.
As for previous statistics, last year, Heydar Aliyev International Airport set a new record for passenger traffic: it served a total of 4.43 million passengers, which is 9 percent higher than in 2017. A total of 3.81 million passengers were carried on international flights and 620,000 passengers - on regional flights.
The terminal of the airport features giant wooden cocoons designed by Turkish architecture studio Autoban. The Airport was listed among the top three unusual airports in the world, according to Hi-Tech.
In 2017 and 2018, Heydar Aliyev International Airport was named the best airport among those of CIS countries for the level of services provided and was awarded the maximum rating of 5 Stars according to Skytrax World Airport Awards.
In 2019, Heydar Aliyev International Airport was named the best airport with passenger traffic up to 10 million according to Sky Travel Awards.
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Mirsaid Ibrahimzade is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @MirsaidIbrahim1
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