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Hamad Intl Approach Control

OTHH / DOH — Qatar

Hamad Intl (OTHH / DOH) is one of the real-world terminal areas you can control in the free ATC Radar Simulator. Its approach (APP) airspace — centred near 25°16.4'N 51°36.5'E in Qatar — is modelled with real runways, radio navaids and instrument procedures. As the approach controller you sequence arriving traffic onto the ILS approach, launch departures on their standard instrument departures, and keep every flight safely separated on the radar.

Hamad International is the modern home base of Qatar Airways, handling a steady flow of long-haul widebodies across the Gulf. Its parallel runways and busy connecting waves reward tidy, well-planned arrival sequencing.

Hamad was purpose-built on reclaimed land to replace old Doha International, and it shows: two long, widely spaced parallels that can run mixed mode when the Qatar Airways banks arrive. Traffic comes in pronounced waves — a burst of twenty widebodies, a lull, then the next bank — and the compact Gulf airspace means coordination with Bahrain’s FIR starts almost as soon as a departure is airborne.

Runways

Runways 16R, 34L, 16L, 34R are equipped with an ILS (Instrument Landing System) — a localizer for lateral guidance and a glideslope for the descent path down to the threshold. In the simulator you turn arrivals onto the extended centreline, clear them for the approach, and watch them capture the localizer and glideslope automatically.

Radio navaids

VOR/DME: DOH

Standard arrivals (STARs)

Standard departures (SIDs)

The terminal airspace

• Transition level: FL60 — below it aircraft fly altitudes on the local QNH; at or above it they fly standard flight levels.
• Upper limit: FL130 — overflights cross the sector below this level.
• The terminal control area (TMA) extends roughly 70 NM around the field.
• Entry / exit fixes on the boundary: DOHALKANDENSITOSNATOVOXULIKAHAYYAVEDEDALVENLUBETTULUBALSEMKUPROVAXIN

How to control Hamad Intl in the simulator

Controlling Doha rewards patience between the waves: use the lulls to plan, because when a bank hits you will be sequencing a dozen widebodies from three directions at once. Watch the short coastal departure legs — climbs need issuing promptly or departures reach the boundary still low.

Pick Hamad Intl when you start a session, then double-click an aircraft's data block to assume it. Give it radar headings, climb or descend it to a level and control its speed to build an orderly stream toward the runway. Turn arrivals onto final, clear them for the ILS, and keep at least 3 NM and 1,000 ft between aircraft — the short-term conflict alert (STCA) warns you before a loss of separation. New to it? Read the guide to approach radar control and the ATC glossary first.