Imam Khomeini International Airport guide

Imam Khomeini International Airport, widely known as IKA, opened for commercial service on 30 April 2005, after construction that began in 1977 stalled for years through the 1979 revolution and the Iran-Iraq War. French firm Aeroports de Paris, working with architect Paul Andreu, designed the original terminal, whose curved profile is meant to echo the desert horizon around it. President Mohammad Khatami ceremonially inaugurated the building in February 2004, but commercial flights did not begin until 7 May 2004, and within hours Revolutionary Guard forces shut the field down, citing security concerns over its foreign-led management.

The Government of Iran owns the airport, which the Imam Khomeini Airport City Company operates. Annual traffic reached roughly 7.7 million passengers in 2024, a fraction of the capacity once projected for a hub airport of its size, a gap partly explained by sanctions that restrict spare parts and route access for Iran's carriers. Two parallel runways, each over four kilometres long, handle the mix of domestic and international flights.

A Tehran Metro Line 1 station opened at the airport in August 2017, giving direct rail access to the capital, and the Tehran-Qom and Tehran-Saveh freeways connect it by road. A planned third terminal, Iranshahr, remains in the design phase.