Basra International Airport

Basrah International Airport مطار البصرة الدولي Maṭār al-Baṣrah ad-Duwaliyy
IATA: BSR ICAO: ORMM
Summary
Airport type	Military/Public
Operator	Iraqi Government
Serves	Basra, Iraq
Hub for	Iraqi Airways
Elevation AMSL	11 ft / 3 m
Coordinates	30°32′56.0″N 47°39′44.9″E / 30.548889°N 47.662472°E / 30.548889; 47.662472
Map
BSR Location of airport in Iraq
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 14/32 13,124 4,000 Concrete
Statistics (2022)
Passengers 535,082 Aircraft operations 6,871
Source: ICAA,[1] COSIT.[2]

Basra International Airport (Arabic: مطار البصرة الدولي, romanized: Maṭār al-Baṣrah ad-Duwaliyy) (IATA: BSR, ICAO: ORMM) is international airport in Iraq, serving the southern city of Basra. As of 2022, Basra International Airport is the fourth-busiest airport by total passenger traffic and aircraft operations in the country, behind the airports in Baghdad, Najaf and Erbil.

The old airport was situated about 6 miles to the east from the current one, on the right bank of Shatt Al-Arab (so it can accommodate the seaplanes). In 1937-1938 an airport terminal for Imperial Airways was built by British architects James Mollison Wilson and Harold Mason with an unusual appearance resembling an imperial palace.^[3]

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The airport was built in the 1980s and then developed in the 1980s by the Iraqi Government department State Organisation for Roads and Bridges (SORB) as a gateway to the only port in Iraq.^{[citation needed]} It is claimed that the airport was built only as a facility for VIPs and was only used rarely.

Renovation of the airport was supposed to proceed with the construction of a new terminal under German contract but the project prematurely ceased with the outbreak of the 1991 Gulf War. Actual development proceeded in the airport only after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. Some facilities were refurbished under a contract by United States Agency for International Development. The project is broad as it includes building air traffic control towers and other navigational facilities, as well as the construction of transportation and communications facilities.

The airport was eventually reopened in June 2004. The event was marked by the traditional sheep sacrifice^{[citation needed]} as an Iraqi Airways Boeing 727 jet landed from Baghdad. It was the beginning of a new domestic service in Iraq between Baghdad and Basra. However, many of the passengers complained about the lack of basic facilities. Problems included air conditioning and toilets.^{[citation needed]}

Reconstruction of the airport is still under way to improve the facilities. Iraqi Airways has already operated routes from this airport, and was its second hub.^{[citation needed]}

Between 2003 and 2009 there was a significant Royal Air Force presence at the airport as No. 903 Expeditionary Air Wing was deployed here with a variety of fixed-wing and rotary such as:

Fixed-wing

• Hawker Siddeley Nimrod MR.2
• Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules C.4 & C.5
• British Aerospace 125

Rotary

• Boeing Chinook HC.2
• Westland Sea King HC.4
• Westland Lynx AH.7/AH.9
• Westland Gazelle AH.1
• Westland Puma HC.1
• Westland Merlin HC.3

The unit was re-deployed to Camp Bastion, Afghanistan during mid 2009.^[4]

The United States Army has also deployed a number of aircraft to Basra irregularly:

• Boeing AH-64 Apache

The Danish Air Force also deployed some aircraft:

• Eurocopter Squirrel

Following the American control and since 2002, SkyLink Arabia has been providing ground operations and fuel supply at the airport.^[5] In 2014 Group holding services with its subsidiary Basra ground handling services company with the partnership of Iraq airways took over the ground handling operations at the airport.

During 2010 access to the airport was strictly controlled by checkpoints situated at the main Airport entrance. Navigating this was done strictly on the production of a flight reference number for outward travel. The US Government (USG), accommodated at the adjacent US Consulate, required dedicated transfer services from the Consulate to the Airport terminal. A newly established company, Personal Transition Services (PTS), was contracted by several of the USG elements to perform this service. The company started by providing services directly to and from the Airport, but quickly grew into a company that provide full life support services further to the south close to the Iraq/Kuwait border at Safwan. PTS became the first International company to have a desk inside the main Airport terminal, from where the locally employed staff were able to provide both English and Iraqi speaking services.

Year	Passengers		Cargo		Aircraft operations
	Total	%YoY	Tons	%YoY	Movements	%YoY
2015	687,695	N.D.	N.D.	N.D.	7,915	N.D.
2016	716,777	4.2%	N.D.	N.D.	9,581	21.0%
2017	800,053	11.6%	N.D.	N.D.	9,752	1.8%
2018	845,351	5.7%	3,169.7	N.D.	10,154	4.1%
2019	984,985	16.5%	3,473.9	9.6%	10,107	0.5%
2020	198,048	79.9%	N.D.	100.0%	2,965	70.7%
2021	349,677	76.6%	1,273.4	N.D.	5,447	83.7%
2022	535,082	53.0%	4,815.7	278.2%	6,871	26.1%

Source: COSIT. Air Transport Activity Statistics, years 2015,^[10] 2016,^[11] 2017,^[12] 2018,^[13] 2019,^[14] 2020,^[15] 2021^[16] and 2022.^[17]

• List of United Kingdom Military installations used during Operation Telic
• List of United States Military installations in Iraq

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

• Pearman, H. (2004). Airports: A Century of Architecture. Laurence King. ISBN 978-1-85669-356-1. Retrieved 27 July 2024.