Mega Construction: New Islamabad International Airport

Mega Construction: New Islamabad International AirportWhenever we’ve featured the spectral form of an airfield as seen on Google Earth, it’s often been a forgotten wartime base or the crumbling runways of an abandoned international airport. It makes a change, therefore, to reveal one that’s under construction, like this megaproject in the Attock District of Pakistan’s Punjab province. New Islamabad International Airport lies due east of Fateh Jang on the edge of the sprawling Islamabad-Rawalpindi metropolitan area. Flights are scheduled to begin on August 14, 2017. The facility will have two runways and serve 15 million passengers each year in its first phase, and 25 million thereafter.The project was conceived back in the 1980s in a bid to replace the overstretched Benazir Bhutto International Airport, which at the current time remains the main airport serving the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. But repeated delays ultimately pushed the opening of the 3,572 acre facility to 2017. When it eventually opens, New Islamabad International Airport will be Pakistan’s most modern airport, able to cater to the largest and newest generation of airliners, including the giant Airbus A380 and Boeing’s 747-8. It will also be the country’s first greenfield airport and feature state-of-the-art aviation met services from the outset.