Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz Airport

Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz International is the primary airport of Medina and the fourth-busiest airport in Saudi Arabia — ranked by BigAirports as one of the two most strategically significant religious-pilgrimage gateways in the world alongside Jeddah (JED). Located 15 km northeast of central Medina at the elevated setting of 2,151 ft (656 m) on the Hejaz plateau, MED handles roughly 11M passengers annually with substantial Hajj and Umrah peaks that push seasonal throughput well above baseline figures. Two runways — 17/35 at 14,222 ft (4,335 m) and 18/36 at 10,039 ft (3,060 m) — support the operation, the long runway dimensioned for fully loaded wide-body departures carrying pilgrims on non-stop service from Southeast Asia, South Asia, North Africa and West Africa. The current terminal, opened in 2015 under a public-private partnership with TAV Construction, was the first airport in the Middle East to achieve LEED Gold certification and handles a 100,000-square-meter passenger facility designed for 8M annual passengers with modular expansion capability toward 18M. MED's 144 routes to 91 destinations across 43 airlines reflect the density of pilgrimage traffic — Saudia operates extensive service to every major Islamic country, with flyadeal, flynas, Emirates, Etihad, Qatar, Turkish, EgyptAir, Royal Jordanian, PIA, Biman Bangladesh, Indonesia AirAsia, Garuda, Malaysia Airlines, Oman Air, Gulf Air, Air Algérie, Royal Air Maroc, Tunisair, Iraqi Airways and Yemenia all maintaining significant frequencies. Most non-Muslim air traffic transits through Jeddah, but MED handles direct pilgrim charter traffic from dozens of countries during Hajj. The airport's integration into the Makkah-Medina high-speed rail project also positions it as part of an integrated religious-tourism transport system.