Hamad International Airport opened for passenger services on 30 April 2014, replacing Doha International Airport, which had run out of room to grow. Construction began in 2005. The project was originally scheduled for completion in 2008, but a series of costly delays pushed the opening back by six years. Cargo operations launched first, on 1 December 2013, with an inaugural Qatar Airways Cargo flight from Europe. All carriers formally relocated on 27 May 2014.

The airport sits east of Doha on the Arabian Gulf, with roughly half of its 36 square kilometres built on reclaimed land. Its terminal and concourses were designed by architecture firm HOK, whose roof canopy evokes the dunes of the desert and the waves of the ocean. The single integrated terminal is organised around concourses A through E, connected by an internal automated train. Qatar sits at a natural geographic midpoint between Europe, East Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, a position that gives DOH structural advantages as a long-haul transit hub that no amount of airline strategy alone could manufacture.

The airport is the exclusive hub of Qatar Airways, which by 2024 connected DOH to 197 destinations served by 55 operating airlines in total. It has ranked consistently in the Skytrax World Airport Awards since opening, winning the World's Best Airport title in 2021, 2022, and 2024, and claiming Best Airport in the Middle East for 11 consecutive years through 2025. In 2025, the airport handled 54.3 million passengers and recorded 282,975 aircraft movements. The Doha Metro's Red Line connects the terminal directly to the city, with the airport station opening in May 2019.