One might expect the largest airport in the world to be located in one of the world’s most visited cities.
If the tourists are coming, then the city could probably use a really big airport! I’m thinking of cities like Bangkok, Paris and New York City, just to name a few.
Surprisingly, the world’s largest airport is located 45 minutes away from Saudi Arabia’s sixth largest city, Dammam.
What I found most amazing is that King Fahd International Airport is bigger than Singapore! While Singapore is 277.6 square miles, King Fahd Airport is 193,000 acres or 301 square miles.
According to T+L, “most of the airport’s land sits unused and undeveloped. And worse, it’s located in the middle of nowhere—literally“.
If you’d like to fly into the airport from the United States you’d be out of luck since there are no direct flights there. There’s also pretty much nothing to do at the largest airport in the world. T+L does mention that pretty much the only concessions you’ll find inside are Cinnabon, Baskin Robbins and Papa John’s. Wow, talk about crappy meal options!
So why does King Fahd Airport need to have so much land set aside for it? I wish that I had an idea because it sounds pretty pointless to me.
Find out more about the largest airport in the world from T+L here.
Rodrigo Huerta- Interesting and thanks for the info! I would’ve liked to have went over the causeway when I was in Bahrain but didn’t have time and we didn’t have Saudi Visas…
Mohammed- That makes total sense! Crazy…
wooo- Good point and you’re probably right!
just so they can lay claim as “the largest airport in the world”. LAME!
corruption!! as someone from Dammam, i try to avoid this airport as much as i can by flying from BAH instead.
The land of the airport is leased from a deceased royal so he can charge the country as much as possible even though the airport is small by number of pax compared to other airports in the region.So how can he charge astronomical fees? lease more land than needed and claim it’s the biggest IN THE WORLD!
And it is awful. Very caothic international security departures both security and passport control. A lot of people prefer to cross the causeway into Bahrain (BAH). Which is clean, organized, great lounges such as Gulfair’s which is much better than Saudia’s in Damman.