Allama Iqbal International Airport guide

Allama Iqbal International Airport serves Lahore, the capital of Punjab and Pakistan's second-largest city, close to the border with India. The current site opened in 1962 as Lahore International Airport, replacing the older Walton Airport, and was renamed in March 2003 after the poet-philosopher Allama Muhammad Iqbal when its main passenger building was inaugurated. Pakistan International Airlines operates one of its secondary hubs here, alongside SereneAir, which bases operations at the airport.

The airport handles both domestic routes across Pakistan and international services to the Gulf, the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe, and is a major departure point for Hajj and Umrah pilgrim traffic to Saudi Arabia. A civil aviation authority expansion programme aims to lift annual passenger capacity from 6 million to 20 million and increase the number of contact gates from 7 to 22.

The airport sits within Lahore's urban area rather than on its outskirts, giving it comparatively short road access to the old city, Gulberg and the cantonment districts. Its two parallel runways handle a mix of narrow-body regional traffic and wide-body flights on longer Gulf and European routes.