Mashhad International Airport

Mashhad International is Iran's second-busiest airport after Tehran Imam Khomeini and the country's most important religious-pilgrimage gateway — the reason for nearly all of its unusually high international traffic. The city of Mashhad is built around the Imam Reza Shrine, the burial place of the eighth Shia Imam and one of the largest mosques in the world by area; the shrine complex draws an estimated 20–30M pilgrims annually, the majority arriving from Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, the Gulf, and Central Asia, with air travel the preferred mode for long-distance pilgrims from the Arab world and the Indian subcontinent. The airport operates two parallel asphalt runways (the longer at 3,925 m / 12,877 ft) and a single terminal split between domestic and international halls. Roughly 81 routes to 40 destinations are flown by 21 airlines; Iran Air, Mahan Air, Iran Aseman, Qeshm Air, and Taban lead domestic services, while international capacity is dominated by pilgrim charters and scheduled services from Iraqi Airways, Gulf Air, Flydubai, Kuwait Airways, and Pakistan International. Mashhad also serves as an overflow and alternate for Tehran during winter fog closures. The airport's location at 994 m (3,263 ft) elevation and its position on the Khorasan plateau just west of the Turkmenistan border give it a unique climatic and political geography. Ongoing US and EU sanctions have constrained Iran's commercial aircraft fleet renewal, and most Iranian carriers operating from MHD fly older MD-80s, Fokker 100s, and A300-600s alongside limited A320 and ATR fleets. Passenger traffic typically runs 8–10M annually, with sharp Ramadan and Arbaeen peaks.