The new Islamabad International Airport has proved to be the most controversial, too large and delayed project in recent history. However, it is undeniable that it is equipped with state-of-the-art technology and has unrivaled passenger capacity in Pakistan.

The airport will also be able to land the world's largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380. which can only be handled by a dozen airports around the world.

At first the A380 landing was in doubt, but a senior civil aviation authority (CAA) Syed Aftab Gilani said that the airport runways are large enough for the largest passenger plane.

The capacity of the airport

The airport currently has sufficient capacity to process 9 million passengers per year. It also has the ability to provide 25 million passengers per year by extension.

The new airport has two runways and three fast exit taxis that will make landing and taking off of the A380 easier and without any delay. In case of an emergency on the main runway, the secondary runway that can handle aircraft as big as the Boeing B777 will be used.

Benazir Bhutto International Airport had only one runway that made it difficult to land big planes. It also contributed to flight delays and extra fuel consumption.

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The new airport

According to Aftab Gilani, the airport is equipped with the following facilities and technologies:

• LED airport lighting system for better vision at night.
• The airport has the third instrument landing system of Southeast Asia (ILS) Category 3. For this purpose only Lahore Airport and Delhi Airport had ILS in the region. ILS gives a view of 50 meters even during thick foggy weather.
• A total of 5 platforms including one for parking three cargo planes.
• The check-in desks have also been upgraded. The new airport has 70 international while 32 domestic check-in counters compared with 25 and 20 counters from Benazir Airport.
• The baggage handling system comes with three baggage scanning lines in line with international standards as well.
• Baggage belts handle 6,000 bags per hour at international delivery, while at international departure 5,500 bags per hour are transported
• 33 aircraft stands compared to the 11 in the old airport. The new airport also has 15 bays with first-class boarding bridges.
• The airport also has a state-of-the-art radar system. Primary radar has a monitoring range of up to 100 nautical miles while the second radar width reaches up to 250 nautical miles.
• Two fire stations with the latest fire fighting equipment and trucks. The stations have a total of five vehicles with 1000 kg of foam and 32,300 liters of water capacity.

Aside from that, 84,365 square meters of area is assigned to Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO) program.

Parking at the airport

The new Islamabad International Airport has ample parking for 2,200 vehicles. The parking lot also received a serious upgrade from the Benzair Airport, which had a total of 600 parking spaces. The parking garage has a total of nine entry and exit points.

The new airport is expected to be inaugurated on 3 May. Initially the inauguration date was fixed on April 20, but this was delayed for unknown reasons