Menara International Airport
Encyclopedia
Marrakech-Menara Airport is an airport
Airport
An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...

 serving Marrakech
Marrakech
Marrakech or Marrakesh , known as the "Ochre city", is the most important former imperial city in Morocco's history...

, the capital city
Capital City
Capital City was a television show produced by Euston Films which focused on the lives of investment bankers in London living and working on the corporate trading floor for the fictional international bank Shane-Longman....

 of the Marrakech-Tensift-El Haouz
Marrakech-Tensift-El Haouz
Marrakesh-Tensift-El Haouz is one of the sixteen regions of Morocco. It is situated in central Morocco. It covers an area of 31,160 km² and has a population of 3,102,652...

 region
Regions of Morocco
Regions of Morocco As part of a 1997 decentralization/regionalization law passed by the legislature 16 new regions were created. It is the current highest administrative division of Morocco. The regions are subdivided into a total of 61 second-order administrative divisions, which are prefectures...

 in Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

. It is an international facility that receives some Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an flights as well as flights from Casablanca
Casablanca
Casablanca is a city in western Morocco, located on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Grand Casablanca region.Casablanca is Morocco's largest city as well as its chief port. It is also the biggest city in the Maghreb. The 2004 census recorded a population of 2,949,805 in the prefecture...

 and some of the Arab world
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...

 nations. The airport served over 3.1 million passengers in the year 2008.

History

During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the airport was used by the United States Army Air Force Air Transport Command
Air Transport Command
Air Transport Command is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its mission was to meet the urgent demand for the speedy reinforcement of the United States' military bases worldwide during World War II, using an air supply system to supplement surface transport...

 as a hub for cargo, transiting aircraft and personnel. It functioned as a stopover en-route to Casablanca Airfield or to Agadir Airport on the North African Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

-Dakar
Dakar
Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...

 transport route for cargo, transiting aircraft and personnel.

Facilities

Aircraft parking space of 125000 square metres (149,499 sq yd) supports up to fourteen Boeing 737
Boeing 737
The Boeing 737 is a short- to medium-range, twin-engine narrow-body jet airliner. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from Boeing's 707 and 727, the 737 has developed into a family of nine passenger models with a capacity of 85 to 215 passengers...

s and four Boeing 747
Boeing 747
The Boeing 747 is a wide-body commercial airliner and cargo transport, often referred to by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet, or Queen of the Skies. It is among the world's most recognizable aircraft, and was the first wide-body ever produced...

s. The air terminals (1 and 2) are 22000 m² (26,312 sq yd) and designed to handle passengers per year. The cargo terminal is 340 m² (407 sq yd) of covered space.

The paved runway
Runway
According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...

 is laid out in the direction 10/28 (almost East-West) is 3100 by 45 m (10,170.6 by 147.6 ). It can receive all modern jetliners up to the Boeing 747
Boeing 747
The Boeing 747 is a wide-body commercial airliner and cargo transport, often referred to by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet, or Queen of the Skies. It is among the world's most recognizable aircraft, and was the first wide-body ever produced...

 in size. The airport is equipped with an ILS Cat II landing system and offers the following radio navigation aids: VOR
VHF omnidirectional range
VOR, short for VHF omnidirectional radio range, is a type of radio navigation system for aircraft. A VOR ground station broadcasts a VHF radio composite signal including the station's identifier, voice , and navigation signal. The identifier is typically a two- or three-letter string in Morse code...

  – DME
Distance Measuring Equipment
Distance measuring equipment is a transponder-based radio navigation technology that measures distance by timing the propagation delay of VHF or UHF radio signals....

 – NDB
Non-directional beacon
A non-directional beacon is a radio transmitter at a known location, used as an aviation or marine navigational aid. As the name implies, the signal transmitted does not include inherent directional information, in contrast to other navigational aids such as low frequency radio range, VHF...

.

Airlines and destinations

Traffic details

Item 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002
Aircraft movements 27,369 29,246 24,613 20,689 16,112 13,843 13,078
Passengers 3,100,495 3,050,916 2,648,742 2,195,899 1,667,267 1,368,281 1,349,363
Freight (tons) 1425.47 1555.07 1307.99 2000.40 2286.86 2092.99 2197.70

External links

  • Marrakech page at ONDA website (has incorrect IATA code RAQ)



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