Brief History Of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport

Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) is the primary international airport serving Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital city. It is also the country’s largest airport, with a capacity of 8 million passengers per year. The airport is named after Hazrat Shah Jalal, a famous Sufi Muslim figure who was instrumental in spreading Islam in Bengal. HSIA can be traced back to the Second World War, when the British government of India built military airstrips near Tejgaon and Kurmitola to fly warplanes to Burma and other battlegrounds. The airstrips at Tejgaon and Kurmitola had military fighter plane landing facilities, and the British Air Force used them for aircraft maintenance. Tejgaon became part of East Pakistan after India’s partition in 1947 and served as a civil airport until 1980.

The government established the Eastern Pakistan Flying Club in 1948 to train local youths in the art of flying. East Pakistan received a branch of the Plant Protection Department’s Flying Wing in 1956. Tejgaon Airport gradually became congested with flights from these agencies as well as PIA, which had acquired piston engine aircrafts such as Dakotas and Convairs, and super constellations converted turbo propeller type of aircrafts such as Viscounts and Fokker. Later, jet planes such as the Boeing, Comet, and DC 8 were added to the fleet. Foreign airlines such as British Airways and Pan American Airways used the airport as well. In 1960, PIA began offering Boeing jet services. Tejgaon Airport had to be upgraded to meet international standards by the Department of Civil Aviation and the Airport Development Agency. This airport began to fall short of meeting the standards of a modern international airport. As a result, the decision was made to build a new international airport in Kurmitola, Dhaka, and construction work on the new airport began with the technical assistance of French experts.

Following Bangladesh’s independence, the airport’s construction work was completed in 1980, and operational activities were relocated from Tejgaon to Kurmitola. In 1983, Dhaka International Airport was renamed Zia International Airport, and in 2010, it was renamed Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.

Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport is located in Kurmitola, 18 kilometers north of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital city.