Horizon International Airport
Horizon International Airport | |||||||||||||||
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 Terminal 2 of Horizon in 1992 | |||||||||||||||
 Horizon INTL Airport logo | |||||||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||||||
| Owner | Horizonese Airport Authority | ||||||||||||||
| Operator | Horizonese Government | ||||||||||||||
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| Location | Grand Horizon, Horizon Islands | ||||||||||||||
| Opened | 1953 | ||||||||||||||
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| Runways | |||||||||||||||
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| Statistics (2022) | |||||||||||||||
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Horizon International Airport, (Horizonese: Horizon Intehjsjl Aigdjhpt) (IATA GHI) (ICAO KHIA) is the only international airport in the Horizon Islands. Named after the largest island, Grand Horizon, the airport takes is located on the westernmost side of the island. It commenced operations in late March 2023, with an Air Horizon Airbus A340 operated by Swiss International on a route from Horizon-Ryu City-Zurich. Air Horizon operates flights from it's hub in grand Horizon to and from it's 6 destination cities quite frequently. The Airport is globally one of the world's busiest and the busiest in the micronational world, with scheduled flights to just 1 other micronation but with macronational flights taking up 90% of all scheduled flights. There are 3 regular terminals and 6 satelite terminals, and in terminal 3 there is a memorial statue of Bilbo Blueshoe, the fighter pilot of a space fighter that sacrificed himself in the 6th Horizonese-Tropican Hyperspace War.
In the 3 non-satelite terminals, there are lounges. In terminal 1, the largest, there is an Air Horizon hybrid resort and lounge, with 348 hotel rooms, an olympic-sized pool, a 5 star steak restaurant, an airport viewing deck, 23 hot tubs, a water park, and a small lounge for layover passengers. In terminal 2 you will find a small Star Alliance lounge, with no hotel and very similar to the LAX lounge. In terminal 3 you will find an Aer Lingus lounge, the smallest one that is equipped with 9 short stay luxury hotel rooms and a 5 star restaurant as well as a general lounging area. The satelite terminals house a small hotels and free lounges, as well as duty free shops.
The airport has 4 control towers, which handle flights based on the terminals they are near. The airport employs 2,000 ramp agents, and 12,000 other employees. A 9th terminal is being built, which will provide 4,000 new jobs for airport jobs.
History
In 1953, the airport was opened as a small dirt strip (Now paved over) and a small terminal (preserved inside terminal 1). Horizon Airways, which operated a fleet of 2 Douglas DC 3 propeller aircraft, for flights between Grand Horizon and Japan. Horizon Airways eventually expanded with routes to the USA and Mexico, before going defunct in 1968. By 1968 the airport was seeing TWA service to St Louis with a stop in Honolulu, on a Boeing 707 jet. TWA served the airport until bankruptcy, and by 1979 British Airways had given the airport it's first European route. By the end of the 1980s, Aer Lingus, KLM, Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Air France, MIAT, Ladeco, Air Jamaica, Air Dabia, South African, United, Delta, American, and Southwest had joined the selection of carriers at the airport. By 2000, EgyptAir, Ethiopian, RAM, Air Brussels, Vietnam Airlines, Lao Airlines, Thai Airways, Air Canada, and Hawaiian had joined. Records of airlines joining the airport were lost in a vault fire in 2016, but by the 2020s at least 80 new airlines had joined the roster.
Facilities
Terminals
There are 3 regular terminals with drive-up entrances, and 6 satelite terminals. In each of the regular terminals, there is a lounge. In terminal 1, you will find the Air Horizon hotel, lounge and resort. The resort is home to a general lounge area for passengers on a short layover, a 5 star hotel, an olympic size pool, and a luxury restaurant. There is also an aircraft viewing deck on top of the hotel. The resort and hotel is open to all passengers, who can be granted access to all parts of the Hotel for fees varying in price, but Air Horizon passengers are granted access to all levels for free. Air Horizon, Qantas, JAL, ANA, Fiji Airways, United Airways, Aeromexico, Air Canada, Eva Air, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, KLM, Lao Airlines, MIAT, and Ethiopian operate out of terminal 1. Terminal 1 is home to all of the airlines who own more than 1 gate at the airport.
Terminal 2 is the home to all of the airlines at Horizon who own a single gate, so it is the largest terminal. There is an Aer Lingus hotel and lounge in this terminal. There is underground people mover service from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1, 3, and 4 of the 6 satelite terminals. One of the control towers is built into the terminal. This terminal has the highest number of fast food restaurants and duty free shops.
Terminal 3 is the smallest of the non-satelite terminals. Terminal 3 is home to a star alliance lounge and an airport garden. It functions like the rest of the satelite terminals in the way that Airlines who don't officially own any gates share gates with other airlines. Terminal 3, although being the smallest handles the most airlines. The satelite terminals each contain 40-54 gates and a single airport hotel that anyone can get in for a fee. There is bus and subway service in between all of the satelites and non satelite terminals. The satelite terminals function as mini versions of the terminals they are sateliting. Panera Am, the other largest micronational operator at the airport operates out of satelite terminal 4.
Airlines and Destinations
| Airline | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Aegean Airlines | Athens |
| Aer Lingus | Dublin |
| Aeromexico | Mexico City |
| Air Algerie | Algiers |
| Air Canada | Montreal-Trudeau, Toronto-Pearson |
| Air France | Paris-Charles de Gaulle |
| Air Horizon | Ontario (California), Port Moresby, Osaka, Ryu City, Zurich |
| Air India | New Dehli |
| Air Mauritius | Mauritius |
| Air Senegal | Dakar-Diass |
| Air Tahiti Nui | Papeete |
| All Nippon Airways | Tokyo-Narita |
| Cathay Pacific | Hong Kong |
| Delta Air Lines | Seasonal: Atlanta |
| Emirates | Dubai |
| Finnair | Helsinki |
| Icelandair | Seasonal Charter: Reykjavik-Keflavik |
| Lao Airlines | Vietnane |
| Japan Airlines | Tokyo-Haneda |
| LATAM | Seasonal: Lima, Santiago, Sao Paulo |
| Korean Air | Seoul |
| Lufthansa | Frankfurt |
| MIAT | Ulaanbaatar |
| Nepal Airlines | Kathmandu |
| Panera Am | Ryu-Blanka International Airport |
| Qatar Airlines | Doha |
| Royal Air Maroc | Casablanca |
| Rwandair | Seasonal: Kigali |
| SAS | Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo |
| Sri Lankan | Colombo-Bandaranaike |
| Tarom | Bucharest |
| Thai Airways International | Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi |
| Tunisair | Tunis-Carthage |
| Turkish Airlines | Istanbul |
| United Airlines | Denver, Chicago, Newark, San Francisco, Guam, Manila, Tokyo-Narita, Houston, Washington-Dulles |
| Vietnam Airlines | Hanoi |