Sharjah is a thriving, bustling city famed for its culture, heritage and tourist attractions. Sharjah International Airport history goes back to 1932, when it was used as a stopover point by Imperial Airways - the forerunners of British Airways, who constructed an airfield at Sharjah as a stopover en-route to India and Australia. Today, Sharjah Airport is the Middle East region’s leading Air Transportation gateway. It is considered as the No.1 cargo hub in the region and it is increasingly becoming popular throughout the world as a favorite transit, departure and arrival point for passengers. The most important factor is the strategic location, midway between the Far East and Europe. Even regionally, Sharjah is centrally placed between the commercial hub Dubai and the other Northern Emirates. Being only 15 minutes driving distance away from Dubai, Sharjah is ideally suited to cater to both markets. Sharjah enjoys an “Open Sky Policy” which permits the Airlines Traffic rights without any hindrance. It boasts the most competitive rates in terms of landing and handling, supported with the most modern equipment and infrastructure to handle aircraft of all types, complemented by professional, efficient and courteous staff.In line with its aim of ensuring customer satisfaction, the Airport provides facilities and services to the passengers that are in keeping with the highest standards. There is the extremely good attraction of “duty free” shopping within the airport, which is managed by the internationally renowned ‘Dufry’, formerly of the Weitnauer”. The duty free boasts world class brand names, at prices, which are extremely reasonable as compared with most other outlets in the world. Alpha Catering Services (Alpha), one of the world’s top airline and airport catering company is responsible for managing in-flight catering at the Sharjah Airport.In October 2003, the government of Sharjah launched its own airline - Air Arabia. In a very short span of time the airline has spread its wings to serve many destinations, across the Gulf, North Africa, the CIS and the sub-continent. The resultant increase in passenger throughput via Sharjah Airport has been dramatic.To cope with the dramatic increase in traffic, Sharjah International Airport has embarked on a four-fold expansion project both airside and land side to ensure the excellence of service quality provided to airlines and passengers using Sharjah International Airport.
