Jalal Talabani International Airport, formerly known as Sulaymaniyah International Airport is 14 kilometers west of the city of Sulaymaniyah in Kurdistan Region, Iraq. The airport encompasses an approximate area of 13.5 square kilometers. The combined capacity of the airport terminals is currently 1.5 million passengers per year and can be expanded to accommodate up to 3 million passengers annually.
In September 2025, Sulaymaniyah International Airport was officially renamed Jalal Talabani International Airport, in honor of the late Jalal Talabani, former President of Iraq and a prominent Kurdish leader. The renaming followed a proposal from the Jalal Talabani Foundation, which had pursued the change for over four years. The proposal was approved by the Iraqi Council of Ministers and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. The name change officially took effect on March 19, 2026, following a decision by the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority (ICAA). From that day on, the new designation was adopted in all official correspondence, aeronautical charts, and related technical documentation. Airport officials described the renaming as a âÂÂhistoric eventâ honoring Jalal TalabaniâÂÂs legacy.
Construction of the airport began in November 2003 following the removal of Saddam Hussein, with the foundation stone laid that month. It was officially opened by Jalal Talabani, who was back then the president of Iraq, on July 20, 2005, under the name Sulaymaniyah International Airport. Several months after its opening, on November 2, 2005, the airport received international recognition from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
International flights were shut down from 29 September 2017 following a decision by the Iraq Civil Aviation Authority (ICAA), but the airport remained open for domestic and humanitarian flights. The international flights ban was lifted in March 2018. The airport has been operated by the Iraqi government following the 2017 ban.
The airport has facilities for both cargo and passengers. Sulaymaniyah International Airport has three terminals; for departures, arrivals and VIPs.
As of 2022, Sulaymaniyah International Airport is the fifth-busiest airport in Iraq by total passenger traffic, behind the airports in Baghdad, Najaf, Erbil and Basra.
Source: COSIT. Air Transport Activity Statistics, years 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.