Old airport to be reopened for passenger flights during WC

The old airport in Qatar will be reopened for passenger flight operations for four weeks during the FIFA World Cup 2022. The Doha International Airport (DIA), which is also known as the old airport, was replaced as the country’s principal airport by the Hamad International Airport (HIA) in 2014. Now, almost all of Qatar’s passenger flight operations are run out of HIA, with DIA serving as an auxiliary airport mostly for military, royal or chartered flight operations. However, with the World Cup expected to bring in fans in massive numbers, the services of DIA are necessary, QA Vice-President for Strategy and Customer Satisfaction Sujata Suri said. “The old airport is very much being used,” Suri said at a conference held as part of the Cityscape Qatar real estate exhibition that began in Doha on Tuesday.
—Rahul Preeth