Pre-1987 Baghdad Airport

[Jona L.]

Hey there....

Just found out, that in the early GWs there is no Baghdad Airport. After some research, I found out, that Saddam International Airport didn't open till '87, and after a little research I found out that there was indeed an airport before that (see link below).

http://airport-codes.findthedata.org/l/3657/Baghdad-Iraq-Muthanna

Was wondering if it could be implemented. I do know that it will be hard to find reliable data on this, but since we have airports in the US where even a flight to ATL would require a 5 seater a/c, we might as well have this. For simplicities sake, you could just use the current BGW airport's demands, downsized to the demand levels of the according era.


Just as a fun fact, there is also a Bagdad Airport in Arizona, USA Lucky there weren't any dyslexic people working on Desert Storm


cheers,
[SC] Jona L.

[FORSBERC]

I can personally say that the Baghdad, AZ airport is terrible. I can not attest to the one in Iraq though.

[DanDan]

searched some more today again, and found an arabic wikipedia page on al wash / al muthana airport:
https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/مطار_المثنى_العسكري

google translate helped my very rusty arabic
"Al-Muthanna Airport (or as it is now known: Al-Muthanna Military Airport), the first official airport in Baghdad, Iraq, was established in 1931, and the first planes landed there in 1932, it was called Al-Wash Airport. The airport is located in the center of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on the Karkh side of it. It is surrounded by the areas of Al-Washash, "Ali Al-Saleh" and Al-Atifiyah (or Al-Shaljiah) and extends to "Al-Zawra Street" between the Al-Mansour and "Al-Alawi" areas. The importance of this airport decreased at the end of the seventies of the last century, after the construction of Baghdad International Airport between 1979 and 1982, when it later turned into an airport and a military base."

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hmmm... and looking into it a bit deeper, i found following picture, which again messes up all the confidence i had in my theory:

https://www.airliners.net/photo/Iraqi-Airways/Boeing-737-270C-Adv/342511/L?qsp=eJwtjU0KwkAMhe%2BStRQEF9JlL6ALLxAyQQenkzEJ1KH07qbF3fd%2BeG8Fkur89UdvDCMYo9ILTtBQcTYYV3hzX0RTMGTFT2Qm6lMPXYTQs9Sh4sxDkYWV0PhfuWlijRYaHYPPODgHsN4Phusl/JStFdzXEjvmAtv2Axn/Mkc%3D

which says, that the old airport changed to the new airport in 1980... and considering it is a 732Adv in front of the old airports terminal, it sounds plausible. 

Spent hours to find info on the airports serving Baghdad. Sadly the internet finds either infos on wars or offers cheap flight tickets...

But from what I gathered, the airport serving Baghdad was "Al Muthana", from the 30ies to 1970, when it was replaced by the later "Baghdad International Airport / Saddam Airport". The date of 1982 seems to be only the date for the opening of the newer terminals at that airport. Data is a mess but i think i found enough to edit current pages:

https://gis.icao.int/SVGICAOMAP/Iraq.pdf - explains info on SDA / BGW

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muthenna_Air_Base - explains the fate of the former airport, which was turned into an AFB and later - well, if you check satellite imagery, you can still see parts of the runway in the south and estimate where it ran...

http://www.gcmap.com/airport/BGW.OLD - gives info on the old airport, including runway length

https://www.airports-worldwide.com/iraq/baghdad_intl_iraq.php

https://aviation-safety.net/database/airport/airport.php?id=0494

[DanDan]

so in my opinion, we should have enough information for a new (old) airport for baghdad:

name: Baghdad - Al Muthana
ICAO/IATA: ORBB / BGW
opened: 1932
closed: ~ whenever SDA/BGW opens - imho 1982
runway length: 3000m
location: N 33.332 E 44.362