Your Guide to Bahrain International Airport (OBBI)

Welcome to Bahrain

Hello guys and welcome to Bahrain International Airport. This Airport serves as the gateway into Bahrain and is home to their national flag carrier Gulf Air with also catering for 38 commercial and cargo airlines. Bahrain International also serves as one of many gateways into the gulf region with GCC counties being within 1 hour of each other. It had 8.7 million passengers pass through its terminal in 2023 along with 130,000 aircraft movements and an impressive 4,700 bags at peak hours.

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HISTORY
It all began for Bahrain International Airport in 1927 when a charted flight arrived. In 2008 the Bahrain Airport Company (BAC) was formed and two years later it took over operations and is now the managing body for BIA which also has a reputation to maintain as it has been an attractive hub for airlines and tourists. In 1932 BIA marked another historic occasion as the first commercial arrived making Bahrain as a whole the first GCC country to operate a commercial international airport, with its geographical location it further cemented themselves as a key aviation hub. Since then BIA has connected the world and served as an important airport in the Middle East with connecting Bahrain to the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.

Fun Fact - The Concorde landed in Bahrain in 1976 with HH Shaik Khalifa bin Salman on board as a guest of honour arriving from London with the flight only lasting one and half hours!

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TERMINALS AND GATES

Main/East Apron - All the commercial airlines use the main apron and east apron. Both aprons consist of 42 gates in total. All wide body aircraft must park at the gates ending in Bravo (Figure 1) and narrow bodies will park at gate ending in Alpha or Charlie but they can also use the Bravo gates if permitted.

Figure 1

Red Outline = Main Apron
Blue Circles = Where the wide bodies must park (narrow bodies too)
Green Scribbles = Where narrow bodies can park

The West Apron, Cargo and Executive Apron
The West Apron is where all the cargo and executive flights depart from (Figure 2). There are a total of 9 gates for cargo operations. This apron can even handle both the 747-400 and the 747-8

Figure 2

Red Outline = West Apron (A + B)
Blue Ovals = Cargo flights depart from these gates

The Middle Apron
The middle apron in other words is the Awal Private Terminal is where those VIP guests and government officials depart from (Figure 5). There are a total of 5 gates for this luxury terminal

Figure 5

Yellow Outline = Middle Apron Remote
IMG_8920

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RUNWAYS

Runways

12L / 30R - ILS Equipped for both ends with a length of 12990 x 196ft, it’s an asphalt runway and the only runway in operation at BIA

12R / 30L - No ILS available both ends with a length of 8297ft x 147ft. This is an asphalt runway. There is an active NOTAM for this runway and in real life this runway is closed and is to be used as taxiway ONLY.

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STARS AND SIDS

SIDS

There are no SIDS due to the fact Dammam and Doha isn’t far from Bahrain which means aircraft will have to make an adjacent turn away from Saudi Arabia to avoid busting with aircraft near Dammam and Doha. Although there are departure charts to follow for pilots for 12L / 30R unless instructed otherwise by ATC.

12L Departure Chart

30R Departure Chart

STARS

There are two STARS available at Bahrain. KOBOK1 Arrival and LADNA1 Arrival.

KOBOK1 Arrival

LADNA1 Arrival

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AIRLINES AND DESTINATIONS
These are the airlines that serve BIA and their destinations.

Air Arabia

Abu Dhabi, Cairo, Sharjah

Air India

India - Delhi

Air India Express

Delhi, Kannur, Kochi, Kozhikode, Mangalore, Thiruvananthapuram

AJet

Istanbul-Sabina Gâkçen

Azerbaijan Airlines

Baku

British Airways

London Heathrow

Egyptair

Cairo

Emirates

Dubai-International

Ethiopian Airlines

Addis Ababa

Etihad Airways

Abu Dhabi

Fly Dubai

Dubai-International

Fly Jinnah

Islamabad

Flynas

Medina, Riyadh

Gulf Air

Abu Dhabi, Amman, Al-Qassim, Athens, Baku, Bnagalore, Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Bodrum, Cairo, Casablanca, Chennai, Colombo, Dammam, Delhi, Dhaka, Doha, Dubai-International, Faisalabad, Frankfurt, Goa, Guangzhou, Hyderabad, Islamabad, Istanbul, Jeddah, Karachi, Kochi, Kozhikode, Kuwait City, Lahore, Larnaca, London Heathrow, MalΓ©, Manchester, Manila, Medina, Milan-Malpensa, Moscow-Domodedovo, Multan, Mumbai, Munich, Muscat, Najaf, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Peshawar, Riyadh, Rome-Fiumicino, Shanghai-Pudong, Sialkot, Singapore, Tbilisi,
Sesonal - Alexandria, Al Ula, Geneva, Malaga, Mykonos, Nice, Rhodes, Salalah, Santorini, Sharm El Sheik
Seasonal Charter - Sarajevo, Tirana, Trabzon
Suspended - Tel Aviv

IndiGo

Kochi, Mumbai

Jazeera Airways

Kuwait City

Kuwait Airways

Kuwait City

Oman Air

Muscat

Pakistan International Airlines

Lahore

Pegasus Airlines

Istanbul-Sabiha Gâkçen
Seasonal- Trabzon

Qatar Airways

Doha

Red Wings Airlines

Sochi

Royal Jordanian

Amman-Queen Alia

SalamAir

Muscat, Salalah

Saudia

Jeddah, Riyadh

Smartwings

Seasonal Charter - Bratislava, Prague
(Commences 23 October 2024)

Southwind Airlines

Antalya, Trabzon

SunExpress

Charter - Antalya, Bursa, Istanbul-Sabiha Gâkçen, Trabzon

Turkish Airlines

Istanbul, Trabzon

CARGO

AeroLogic

Frankfurt, Guangzhou, Leipzig/Halle, Singapore

DHL

Abu Dhabi, Amman-Queen Alia, Amsterdam, Baghdad, Bangalore, Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Brussels, Cairo, Cincinnati, Dubai-International, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Jeddah, Kandahar, Karachi, Kuwait City, Lahore, Liège, New York-JFK, Sharjah

Emirates SkyCargo

Dubai-Al Maktoum

Lufthansa Cargo

Frankfurt

Qatar Airways Cargo

Doha

SpiceXpress

Delhi

Turkish Cargo

Istanbul

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I’ll make sure I will keep this thread up to date should there be any changes and don’t hesitate to let me know if they’re any errors. This is my first guide so I hope you didn’t expect to much. Other than that thanks for your time and reading through my guide!

6 Likes

Nice guide

Great guide, thanks!
Flew to and from that airport quite oft (20 times maybe…), some years back. The approach gives nice window views.