Departure
98%
vs 95% ▲ 3
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Bacha Khan International Airport, formerly Peshawar International Airport, serves the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial capital in northwest Pakistan, close to the Khyber Pass and the border with Afghanistan. A single long, ILS-equipped runway and a history stretching back to the Imperial Airways era make it a notable stop for anyone flying the historic route between the subcontinent and Central Asia.
Bacha Khan International Airport, known for most of its history as Peshawar International Airport, lies on the southwestern edge of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in northwest Pakistan. Operated by the Pakistan Airports Authority, it is the fourth-busiest airport in the country and has long served as a gateway between the Indian subcontinent, Afghanistan and points further west, a role that gives it particular interest for pilots retracing historic long-haul air routes.
The airport sits in the heart of Peshawar District, on the southwestern side of the city, within reach of the Khyber Pass and the Afghan border to the west. It is a major international aerodrome with full air traffic control services, and its approach frequency is identified locally as CHERAT APP, suggesting an associated approach fix or reporting point in that name.
The airport has a single physical runway, 17/35, of 9,003 feet on a hard surface. It is lit and equipped with an ILS on runway 35.
Radio services include CHERAT APP on 125.6 MHz, an ATIS broadcast on 126.7 MHz, a GCA facility on 118.3 MHz, RDO on 292.3 MHz and TWR on 122.9 MHz. Runway 35 is served by an ILS.
The airfield traces its origins to 1927, when a small airstrip here served Imperial Airways aircraft of the British Empire routing east towards China and Malaya, or west towards Europe and the Americas, earning Peshawar the nickname "Gateway to the East." After Pakistan's independence, the Civil Aviation Authority and the Pakistan Air Force operated the field jointly for civil and military use, and it gained international status in 1965 with Pakistan International Airlines' first flight from Kabul. The terminal was extended in 1981 and the apron fully developed by 1986 to handle widebody aircraft. The airfield has a notable Cold War footnote: on 1 May 1960, a Lockheed U-2 flown by Gary Powers departed Peshawar on the mission that ended in his shooting down over the Soviet Union. On 23 October 1986 a Pakistan International Airlines Fokker F27 undershot the runway on a night approach after a co-pilot error, breaking up in a ditch short of the runway with thirteen serious injuries. The airport was renamed in January 2012 in honour of Abdul Ghaffar Khan, known as Bacha Khan, the Pashtun nationalist leader, and underwent extensive reconstruction between 2016 and 2018.
Now operating as Bacha Khan International Airport under the Pakistan Airports Authority, the field remains the fourth-busiest in Pakistan, with roughly three-quarters of its scheduled traffic bound internationally, reflecting Peshawar's role as a hub for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and neighbouring Afghan communities. One of the runways is crossed by the Khyber train safari railway line, run for tourism purposes to Landi Kotal in the Khyber Pass, a distinctive feature for pilots to note when operating here.