Medina Airport Guide: Gateway to the Prophet’s City
Medina Airport serves millions of pilgrims a year through a terminal opened in 2015. Read about its runways, airlines, Hajj and Umrah traffic and transport.
By The Aviation Hub
6 min read
Updated October 20, 2026 
Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz International Airport serves Medina, the second holiest city in Islam and the resting place of the Prophet Muhammad. It stands on the desert plateau north east of the city and handles a traffic mix found almost nowhere else, with pilgrims from Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey arriving in waves tied to the Islamic calendar. Medina Airport carried around 11 to 12 million passengers in its latest year, which makes it the fourth busiest airport in Saudi Arabia. It was also the kingdom’s first privately run airport.
Medina Airport at a Glance
The codes are MED and OEMA. The field lies about 9 miles (15 km) north east of the Prophet’s Mosque at the centre of the city. Elevation is 2,151 ft (656 m) on the edge of the Hejaz plateau, with bare volcanic hills on every horizon. Summer temperatures pass 45 degrees Celsius, which stretches take off runs on the long runway.
Medina Airport has two runways and a single terminal complex opened in 2015. The 2024 figure was about 10.9 million passengers, and the latest estimate sits near 11.9 million, with sharp peaks around Ramadan and the Hajj. Saudia and flynas carry the bulk of domestic and regional traffic, and flyadeal has grown fast. Tibah Airports, a consortium led by TAV Airports of Turkey, operates the field under a 25 year concession from the General Authority of Civil Aviation. Pilgrim guidance and flight details are on the airport’s official website.
A Short History of Medina’s Airport
Medina has had an airport since the 1950s, when Saudi Arabian Airlines began flying Douglas DC-3s from Jeddah to serve pilgrims who had previously travelled by road and by the Hejaz Railway before the First World War. The field grew slowly as a domestic station, with Jeddah handling all international pilgrim traffic through its Hajj Terminal.
The name honours Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz, a son of the kingdom’s founder and the first governor of Medina Province. International status came in 2007, when the government chose a consortium to expand and run the airport. The 25 year concession was signed in 2011 as Saudi Arabia’s first full public private partnership in aviation, financed through an Islamic structure worth more than a billion dollars.
The new terminal began test operations on 12 April 2015 and King Salman inaugurated it on 2 July that year. The project cost around 1.2 billion dollars, won a LEED Gold rating as the first commercial terminal in the region to do so, and took the award for the best airport development in the world at the 2015 Engineering News Record competition.
Runways at Medina Airport
Runway 17/35 is the principal strip at 4,335 m (14,222 ft) long and 60 m wide, asphalt surfaced. That is one of the longest runways in the Middle East, built for fully loaded Boeing 777-300ERs and Airbus A380s departing in extreme heat at altitude. Runway 18/36 runs beside it at 3,060 m (10,039 ft) and 45 m wide, and it takes narrow body traffic and relieves the main runway during the Hajj peaks.
A former runway 15/33, around 2,400 m long, closed in 1986 and became an apron. The prevailing wind is northerly for most of the year, so arrivals usually land on 35 and 36 from the south over the city outskirts, with departures climbing north into open desert. Southerly winds in winter swing operations around.
Medina Airport has seen two unusual events on its runways. In 2001 Saudi forces stormed a hijacked Vnukovo Airlines Tupolev Tu-154 after an 18 hour standoff, and three people died. In January 2014 a Saudia Boeing 767-300 from Mashhad landed with a main gear leg stuck up, and 29 people were hurt sliding from the nose high aircraft.
Terminals and Airlines
The 2015 terminal is a long, low building of 157,000 square metres under a roof of pointed arches that recall the Prophet’s Mosque. Check in sits in a central hall, with domestic gates to one side and international gates to the other, and a dedicated area for pilgrim groups. The design capacity is around 8 million passengers a year with provision for expansion to 18 million.
Saudia, a SkyTeam member, is the largest carrier with Airbus A320 family, A330 and Boeing 787 flights to Jeddah, Riyadh and the main pilgrim markets. flynas and flyadeal, both low cost, compete on domestic trunk routes, and flynas adds Egypt, Pakistan and the Gulf. Foreign carriers include EgyptAir, Turkish Airlines, Pegasus, Qatar Airways, Etihad, Garuda Indonesia, Lion Air, Malaysia Airlines, Pakistan International, IndiGo, Air Astana and Jazeera Airways. Wizz Air and Transavia even link the city with London and France.
Lounges are limited to a Saudia Alfursan room and a pay on entry lounge. There are no alcohol outlets and the terminal has a large prayer hall, as expected in the holy city.
Routes and Destinations
Jeddah and Riyadh are the busiest routes from Medina Airport, with Saudia and flynas running shuttle style frequencies through the day. Dammam, Abha, Jazan and the smaller Saudi cities follow. Cairo, Istanbul, Dubai, Doha and Karachi are among the main international routes.
The pilgrim markets define the long haul map. Garuda, Lion Air and Citilink fly seasonally from Yogyakarta, Medan and Makassar, Malaysia Airlines from Kuala Lumpur, Pakistan International from Multan and Sialkot, and IndiGo from Hyderabad and Mumbai. Citilink’s seasonal Makassar flights are the longest at roughly 5,700 miles (9,200 km), while Kuala Lumpur is the longest year round route. Traffic peaks in Ramadan and in the weeks around the Hajj, when charters from across Africa and Asia fill the stands, and it falls away in the quiet months between.
Getting to and from Medina Airport
The Haramain High Speed Railway does not stop at the airport. Its Medina station lies in the city, a taxi ride away, and trains from there reach King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah in around two hours, with Mecca about two and a half hours away. It is the fastest and most comfortable link between the two holy cities.
By road, the airport sits off the Qassim highway north east of the city. A taxi to the Prophet’s Mosque takes 20 to 30 minutes and costs around 60 to 80 riyals (£13 to £17), and Uber and Careem both operate. SAPTCO buses serve the city for a few riyals, and pilgrim groups travel by chartered coach. Parking stands in front of the terminal with short and long stay areas.
Spotting and Photography
Medina Airport is not a spotting destination in the usual sense, but the Hajj season brings aircraft seen nowhere else, from Biman Bangladesh Boeing 777s to Air Algerie and Nigerian charters. The terminal’s departure gates have wide windows onto the apron and the long runway beyond. The approach to Runway 35 comes in from the south.
Light is harsh for most of the year, so early morning and the hour before sunset give the only workable conditions. Winter brings clearer air and occasional cloud over the hills. The volcanic landscape makes a striking backdrop for departures climbing out to the north.
Saudi Arabia takes airport security seriously, and photography near fences and police posts can bring trouble. Keep cameras inside the terminal, do not photograph security staff and respect the sensitivities of the holy city.
What Comes Next
Tibah’s concession runs to 2036 and includes options to expand the terminal towards 18 million passengers a year. The kingdom’s Vision 2030 target of 30 million Umrah pilgrims a year will push traffic hard. Terminal expansion and more wide body stands are the likely next phases.
The long runway gives decades of headroom. The constraint is the pilgrim calendar, which fills the field for a few weeks and leaves it quiet for months.
Medina Airport is heading for steady growth as Saudi Arabia opens up, with pilgrims rather than tourists at the centre. See how it compares with Jeddah and Riyadh on the Airports of the World map.
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