Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Mehrabad International Airport (OIII) is Iran's oldest major airfield, sited on the western edge of central Tehran close to Azadi Tower. Once the country's principal international gateway, it now handles domestic traffic and continues to serve as a base for Iranian military and government aviation, making it an unusually busy and historically rich destination for a simulated visit.
Mehrabad is a large public and military airfield in the city of Tehran, opened in 1938 and operated today by the Iran Airports and Air Navigation Company. It remains the busiest airport in Iran by passenger volume and aircraft movements, and is a base for the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, Islamic Republic of Iran Army Aviation, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iranian Police Aviation, alongside a large roster of domestic airlines led by Iran Air. For a simulator pilot it offers a dense mix of civil and military traffic set against the backdrop of one of the Middle East's largest cities.
The airfield lies in the west of Tehran, within District 9 of the city, close to Azadi Square and Azadi Tower, placing it well inside the built-up metropolitan area rather than on the outskirts. It sits at an elevation of 3,868 feet and at coordinates 35.6889 N, 51.3147 E. It shares Iranian domestic airspace with the newer Imam Khomeini International Airport roughly 22 miles to the south, which took over all international services from Mehrabad by 2008.
Mehrabad has two parallel hard-surfaced, lit runway pairs aligned 11/29. The northern pair, 11L/29R, is 13,481 feet long on the 11L threshold and 13,228 feet on the 29R threshold, with an ILS serving the 29R approach. The southern pair, 11R/29L, is 13,376 feet long on the 11R threshold and 13,089 feet on the 29L threshold, with an ILS serving the 29L approach. Both pairs are exceptionally long by general aviation standards, reflecting the field's history of handling wide-body international traffic.
Published frequencies for Mehrabad are Approach on 119.7 MHz, ATIS on 128 MHz, Ground on 121.7 MHz and Tower on 118.1 MHz. Instrument approaches are available, with ILS equipment serving the 29L and 29R runway ends.
The unmistakable Azadi Tower, close to Azadi Square, stands near the airport in west Tehran and serves as a prominent visual landmark for locating the field when approaching the city from the air.
The site began life as Base-J, home to the Imperial Iranian Army's first armoured and mechanised artillery units equipped by the Czechoslovak Škoda Works under General Mahmud Mir-Djalali. It was first used as an airfield for aviation club aircraft in 1938, and during the Second World War served as a stopover for the United States Air Transport Command. Iran joined ICAO in 1949, and the airfield doubled as an air force base, receiving Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star trainers in 1956 and Republic F-84 Thunderjet fighters in 1957. The first asphalt runway and the terminal now known as Terminal 1 were built in 1955. Iran Air began Boeing 707 service to New York via London in May 1975, followed by direct Boeing 747SP flights the following year. Passenger numbers rose sharply through the 1970s, from 900,000 in 1970 to over three million by 1976, prompting construction of a new airport 22 miles from Tehran from 1977. On 24 January 1979 the military seized control of Mehrabad and other Iranian airports in an attempt to block Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's return from exile, relenting eight days later to allow his arrival aboard a chartered Air France aircraft. At the outset of the Iran-Iraq War in September 1980, Iraq carried out an air strike on the airport. Through the 1980s Mehrabad's route network extended from Paris to Beijing, and by 2000 it was handling nine million passengers a year in addition to military flights, with airlines advising three-hour early arrival because of congestion. The replacement facility, Imam Khomeini International Airport, opened in 2004, though political factors delayed the transfer of international services, which did not fully move until March 2008. During the Twelve-Day War between Iran and Israel in June 2025 the airport was closed.
Since the transfer of international flights to Imam Khomeini International Airport, Mehrabad has operated as Iran's principal domestic airport, still ranking as the country's busiest in terms of both passengers and aircraft movements. It has four active passenger terminals used by a large number of domestic carriers including Iran Air, Mahan Air, Aseman Airlines, Caspian Airlines, Qeshm Air, Kish Air and others, alongside its continuing role as a military and government aviation base.