Heydar Aliyev International Airport guide

Heydar Aliyev International Airport opened in 1933 as Baku's original airfield and took its current name in March 2004, honouring the former Azerbaijani president. It sits in the Khazar district roughly 20 km northeast of central Baku, connected to the city by the Baku Airport Highway. The Government of Azerbaijan owns the airport, and Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) operates it as the country's principal international gateway and the busiest airport in the South Caucasus.

Traffic reached 7.5 million passengers in 2024, up 31% on the year before, across 59,238 aircraft movements. Two parallel runways handle the flow: one 4,000 metres long, the other 3,200 metres. The airport earned a Skytrax five-star rating in 2018 and became the first airport worldwide to run its operations on cloud infrastructure in 2023.

AZAL is the largest carrier at the airport, alongside Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa and flydubai on the international side. Terminal 2, reopened for international service in June 2023, handles budget carriers such as Wizz Air, Israir and FlyArystan, separate from the mainline traffic in Terminal 1.