A Brief about "History and Present" of Multan International Airport

Previously known as Muhammad Bin Qasim International Airport, Multan International Airport is owned and operated by Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) and it is located in west of Multan which is about 4km away from the main city. 

It is situated at an elevation of 403ft i.e., 122.8m and is one of the largest and also the busiest airport in South Punjab. The airport offers flights to both domestic and international destinations. Whereas the popular international flights from this airport are to the Middle Eastern Countries. 

History

The history of Multan airport can be traced back to the British era when, during early 1900s, the Royal Air Force used this open space to fly in and out of the region mostly for aircraft that were able to land at grass or on rough surfaces as the runway was not paved then. Even today, Pakistan army aviation base is situated adjacent to the runway and opposite to the terminal building. In 1930s, Imperial Airways used to run its operations from this airport and after the independence of Pakistan, Multan Flying Club was established and later PIA started its operations from here. Due to this increase in aviation activity, runway, taxiways and aircraft parking areas are paved. 

Transition

Let's skip ahead till first decade of 21st century when PCAA proposed to upgrade the runway to handle Boeing 747. Then the decision to expand the terminal building and the airside was made with the estimated budget of 4.5 billion rupees. The first phase of this project i.e., the expansion of runway, taxiway and apron was completed but, in the second phase, instead of expanding the existing terminal (which was previously planned), Civil Aviation Authority decided to construct a whole new state of the art terminal building. So the new airport was finally inaugurated in 2010.  

Present

The new terminal is a single-structured building with separate arrival and departure halls. Alongside the terminal building, one can see the four jet bridges which can accommodate two wide-body and four narrow-body aircrafts.  Inside the new terminal building, the main concourse covers the area of 4,200 sq. ft. along with a CIP lounge which comprises of 2400 sq. ft.. CIP lounge is dedicated to mainly business class passengers. Currently, the airport has a parking space of 130 vehicles which includes both short and long-term parking options. 25 spaces are also reserved for VIP car parking. 

The airport has a single runway with 18/36 orientation. While on the subject, it may be interesting to know that the runways are usually useable for departure and landing from both ends depending upon the wind direction. So here, runway orientation - 18/36 means 180 degree magnetic heading at one end of the runway and 360 degrees heading on the other. The length of this runway is 3,205m which is capable of handling large aircrafts like Boeing 777 or 747 and Airbus 340.  It is completely equipped with an airfield lighting system with an addition of Instrument Landing System (ILS). The category of ILS at this airport is still CAT-I that creates issue of long delays and diversions as this system does not support landing operations in low visibility conditions like fog. The latest category of ILS in the world is CAT-III-C. 

There is also a taxiway that runs parallel to this runway. Taxiways can be considered as streets so that the aircrafts can move between the runway, aircraft parking area and other components of the airfield of an airport. Beside the passenger terminal, there is an Air Cargo Complex that has the current yearly handling capacity of 10,000 metric tons with the plan to increase this to 30,000 metric tons. 

Airlines

Presently, following airlines have their presence at Multan International Airport. Among these airlines, PIA is the only carrier to operate both domestic and international flights. Rest of them are operating only international flights.

1. Pakistan International Airline (PIA) 
2. Fly Dubai
3. Airblue
4. Airarabia
5. Salam Air
6. Saudi Airlines
7. Gulf Air