Departure
90%
vs 95% ▼ 5
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Doha International Airport (OTBD) was Qatar's principal commercial airport for over half a century before traffic transferred to the new Hamad International Airport in 2014. It survives today as a state and military aerodrome close to central Doha, with a single very long runway that still attracts interest from simulator pilots for its history and scale.
Doha International Airport, ICAO code OTBD, served as the main gateway to Qatar from 1959 until commercial operations moved to Hamad International Airport in May 2014. It is now used as a state and military field, home to the Qatar Amiri Flight, and also supports the Qatar Emiri Air Force, Rizon Jet, Gulf Helicopters and the Qatar Aeronautical College. For a simulator pilot it offers an unusual mix: a former major international hub reduced to a quieter mixed civil-military operation, retaining one of the longest runways built for civil use.
The airfield lies in Doha, in the Baladiyat ad Dawhah (Ad-Dawhah Municipality) of Qatar, at coordinates 25.2611N, 51.5651E and an elevation of 30 feet. It sits close to the coast within the Doha built-up area, a few kilometres west of Hamad International Airport, which was built to replace it.
The field has a single physical runway aligned 15/33, of hard surface construction and lit, with ILS equipment serving both approach directions. Published lengths differ slightly between the two ends, with runway 33 given as 15,011 feet and runway 15 as 12,536 feet.
Published frequencies for the field are Approach on 121.1 MHz, ATIS on 126.45 MHz, Ground on 118.275 MHz, Operations on 139.5 MHz (callsign Kingfish November), and Tower on 118.9 MHz. Both runway directions are equipped with ILS.
Doha International Airport opened in 1959, replacing Dukhan Airport, a facility built in the 1930s some 80 kilometres west of Doha that had served as a secondary hub for Bahrain-based Gulf Air. Its 4,570-metre (14,993 ft) runway was among the longest at any civil airport, and the field became the main base of Qatar Airways as the carrier expanded rapidly, growing from a field mostly serving Qatari travellers and oil and gas workers into a major international hub; by 2010 it ranked 27th in the world for cargo traffic. The control tower and ancillary buildings were designed by Curtis W. Fentress of Fentress Architects. Persistent overutilisation and a lack of land for expansion, including the inability to add a second runway, led to the construction of a new airport nearby. All scheduled commercial air traffic transferred to the newly opened Hamad International Airport, four kilometres to the east, on 27 May 2014; the last commercial departure from Doha International was a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt at 00:30 on 28 May 2014. Although demolition was originally planned, the airport was instead refurbished and reopened temporarily in late 2022 to handle selected charter flights during the FIFA World Cup hosted by Qatar.
Doha International Airport now functions primarily as a state and military aerodrome. It is the home base of Qatar Amiri Flight and also supports the Qatar Emiri Air Force, Rizon Jet, Gulf Helicopters and the Qatar Aeronautical College, in addition to catering for state-visit flights. The airport briefly returned to limited commercial use in late 2022 to help handle World Cup traffic on selected airline services.