Ganja International Airport Gəncə Beynəlxalq Hava Limanı | |||||||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Public / Military[citation needed] | ||||||||||||||
| Owner | Government of Azerbaijan | ||||||||||||||
| Operator | Azerbaijan Airlines | ||||||||||||||
| Serves | Ganja | ||||||||||||||
| Location | Ganja, Azerbaijan | ||||||||||||||
| Opened | 1951 | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 1,083 ft / 330 m | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 40°44′16″N046°19′03″E / 40.73778°N 46.31750°E /40.73778; 46.31750 | ||||||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||||||
  GNJ/UBBG GNJ/UBBG (West and Central Asia) Show map of West and Central Asia GNJ/UBBG GNJ/UBBG (Asia) Show map of Asia GNJ/UBBG GNJ/UBBG (Europe) Show map of Europe | |||||||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||||||
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| Statistics (2014) | |||||||||||||||
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| Source:ACI's 2014 World Airport Traffic Report. | |||||||||||||||
Ganja International Airport (Azerbaijani:Gəncə Beynəlxalq Hava Limanı) (IATA:GNJ,ICAO:UBBG) is an airport servingGanja[1] (also known as Gyandzha[2]), thethird-largest city inAzerbaijan.
It was previously used by theSoviet Air Force.[citation needed] In 1996 the airport received the status of an international airport and since then is used for civil aviation purposes.[3]
During the2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war,Arayik Harutyunyan, president of the self-proclaimedRepublic of Artsakh, on 4 October 2020 stated that theArtsakh Defense Army had hit Ganja's military airport, however, Azerbaijan said no military sites were hit.[4] Reporters of Russian channelTV Rain reported that the airport had not been hit and that the airport had been closed since March due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. Missiles hit residential buildings in the city, killing 1 person and wounding 32.[5] On September 29, theMinistry of Defence of Armenia stated that aTurkish Air ForceF-16 Viper shot down an ArmenianSu-25 flying inside Armenian airspace, killing the pilot—also stating that Turkish F-16 jets had taken off earlier from Ganja airport and were assisting Azerbaijani forces in missile strikes against border regions nearVardenis in theGegharkunik Province of Armenia.[6] In response to the Armenian claim, the assistant to the President of Azerbaijan,Hikmet Hajiyev, stated that "Azerbaijan doesn't have F-16s – there aren't any on our soil or in our airspace". He claimed in turn that the aforementioned Su-25 as well as another Armenian Su-25 had crashed in the air while flying towards Azerbaijan.[7] A week later on October 7, satellite imagery was published by theNew York Times Visual Investigations Team confirming the presence of twoF-16 Vipers at the airport.[8] Following the publication of the satellite imagery, Azerbaijani presidentIlham Aliyev conceded the official position regarding the F-16s' presence and that they had arrived in the country during military exercises prior to the war, but claimed they were not participating in combat.[9][10]
In August 2021,IATA announced a newly assigned code of “GNJ”, which will reflect the city's new name. The former code of “KVD” refers to the city's previous name, Kirovabad.[11]
The airport resides at an elevation of 1,083 feet (330 m) abovemean sea level. It has tworunways designated 12L/30R with anasphalt/concrete surface measuring 3,300 by 44 metres (10,827 ft × 144 ft)[12] and non-operational 12R/30L with a concrete surface measuring 2,490 by 40 metres (8,169 ft × 131 ft). The runway designated 12R/30L has long been non-operational due to lack of maintenance and navigation equipment. Renovation and reconstruction of this concrete runway is needed due to occasional military usage of the airport.
| Passengers | Change from previous year | Aircraft operations | Change from previous year | Cargo (metric tons) | Change from previous year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 259,451 | N.D. | 2,814 | N.D. | 917 | N.D. |
| 2013 | 345,055 |  32.99% | 3,052 | 8.46% | 883 |  3.71% |
| 2014 | 329,156 | 4.61% | 3,060 | 0.26% | 721 | 18.35% |
| Source: Airports Council International. World Airport Traffic Reports (Years 2012,[18] 2013,[19] and 2014[20]) | ||||||
