Construction started on Hamad International Airport (HIA) in 2004 with a huge land reclamation project. Sand from the seabed was used to build new land off the coast. More than half of the area of the new airport is on 28 square kilometers of reclaimed land.

The new airport’s two runways are 4,850 meters and 4,250 meters long. They were designed to accommodate the Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger jet.

The first flights at HIA began in 2014. The new airport replaces the old Doha International Airport, located just west of the new airport. HIA is 12 times the size of the old airport. Indeed, its presence now dominates the Landsat images of Doha.