Bahrain International Airport

A chartered flight lands in Bahrain, marking the earliest recorded use of the site for aviation.

Scheduled commercial service by Imperial Airways, flying a Handley Page H.P.42 named 'Hannibal' on the London-Delhi route, formally establishes Bahrain as one of the Persian Gulf's first international airports.

The Royal Air Force establishes a military installation at the airfield, later renamed RAF Muharraq in 1963; it remains in British military use until Bahraini independence in December 1971, having also served as a WWII-era U.S. Army Air Forces stopover on the Karachi-Cairo route.

Gulf Aviation Company, forerunner of national carrier Gulf Air, is established with a single secondhand aircraft, later expanding its fleet with de Havilland types and DC-3s and building Bahrain into a modern regional hub.

New facilities completed in December 1971 allow the airport to accommodate up to four Boeing 747 aircraft simultaneously, coinciding with Bahrain's independence.

A $100 million terminal opens, raising annual capacity to about 10 million passengers.

A $1.1 billion, 210,000-square-meter terminal opens on January 28, 2021, with capacity for 14 million passengers and 130,000 annual air traffic movements across 24 departure gates.