Yasser Arafat International Airport (Arabic: مطار ياسر عرفات الدولي Maṭār Yāsir 'Arafāt ad-Dawli) (IATA: GZA, ICAO: LVGZ), formerly Gaza International Airport and Dahaniya International Airport, is located in the Gaza Strip, in between Rafah and Dahaniya, close to the Egyptian border.
It is owned, and was operated, by the Palestinian Authority, and served as the home airport for Palestinian Airlines. The airport was able to handle 700,000 passengers per year and operated 24 hours and 364 days a year (closed on Yom Kippur). The airport opened in 1998, but it closed in 2001 after being severely damaged by Israeli military forces. Its destruction left Gaza Airstrip as the only serviceable runway in the Gaza Strip.
On 22 July 2010, 7,203 Gazan children between the ages of 6 and 15 participated in setting a new Guinness World Record for the simultaneous dribbling of basketballs on the airport's undamaged tarmac ramp. Three weeks later, in August 2010, the tarmac ramp was destroyed by Palestinians seeking stones and recycled building materials for reconstruction of the Gaza Strip after the Gaza War.
Read more about Yasser Arafat International Airport: History, Runways, Buildings and Terminal, Ground Transportation, Airlines, Air Traffic Control
Famous quotes containing the words arafat and/or airport:
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