Jeddah to Dammam one day trip/ Dammam tourist attractions Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦/ iftikhar Ahmed usmani

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Because of Jeddah's proximity to the city of Mecca, the airport has a dedicated Hajj Terminal, built to handle pilgrims taking part in the rituals associated with the annual Hajj. It can accommodate 80,000 travelers at the same time.
Designed by the Bangladeshi-American engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), it is known for its tent-like roof structure, engineered by Horst Berger while part of Geiger Berger Associates.Ten modules, each consisting of twenty-one "tents" of white colored Teflon-coated fiberglass fabric suspended from pylons, are grouped together into two blocks of five modules and separated by a landscaped mall between the blocks. Only customs, baggage handling and similar facilities are located in an air-conditioned building. The vast majority of the complex, called "Terminal Support Area", is a flexible, open area, conceived to function like a village, complete with souk (market) and mosque. Not enclosed by walls, this area is sheltered from the intense sun while allowing for natural ventilation; because of this, some consider it to be a green, environmentally-friendly building.

The Hajj Terminal received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1983. According to the jury, "the brilliant and imaginative design of the roofing system met the awesome challenge of covering this vast space with incomparable elegance and beauty."


The airport is classified as Code E by the ICAO which means aircraft such as the Boeing 747-400 and A340-600 could be easily accommodated. It is practically possible for an A380 to use the airport, but this is not recommended as in order to accommodate such aircraft, an airport is required to be Code F; only the runways at Dammam Airport meet Code F requirements; the taxiways and gates do not.

Terminals
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The six-story main terminal building has a total area of 327,000 m2 (3,520,000 sq ft). Approximately 247,500 m2 (2,664,000 sq ft) were built in the first phase, in addition to 11 fixed passenger boarding bridges serving 15 gates. The original design included 31 fixed boarding bridges. The departure terminal is equipped with several customer counters of which 66 were allocated to Saudia (now shared with flynas), 44 to foreign airlines, and the rest for customs and immigration.

King Fahd International Airport was the first Saudi airport to adopt duty-free stores. In addition to the spaces allocated to duty-free stores, the airport has a separate area for shops specializing in the sale of gifts and all passenger-related goods. This area includes restaurants, cafeterias, and banks, and is located on the arrivals level. The distinction is largely meaningless, however, as the Kingdom has no sales or import duties on any products.

The private airline operated by Saudi Aramco, Saudi Aramco Aviation, operates out of the Aramco Terminal, providing connections to its employees to faraway company locations such as in Yanbu, Tanajib, Shaybah and Haradh, in addition to some remote pump stations, using their own fleet of Boeing 737s and Embraer ERJ-170LRs.

The Royal Terminal is reserved for the royal family of Saudi Arabia, government personnel, and official guests. It covers an area of 16,400 m2 (177,000 sq ft) and has four bridges linking the terminal to aircraft. It is luxuriously furnished and decorated, and includes extensively landscaped exteriors and grounds. Despite its specialized purpose, the terminal is rarely used by the royal family, who generally prefer to utilize a similar special terminal at King Abdulaziz Air Base.

Runways
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The airport has two parallel runways with a length of 4,000 m (13,123 ft) each: 16L/34R and 16R/34L, in addition to taxiways parallel to the runways and a cross taxiway to connect the two runways. The two runways are separated by 2,146 m (7,041 ft). The east runway is generally used by Saudi Aramco while commercial airlines use the west one. A third parallel runway is under construction