Port Said Metropolitan Area

The Port Said Metropolitan Area (Arabic: مساحة بور سعيد المتروبوليتانية misāḥat būr sa‘īd al-mitrūbūlītānīyah) is an urban agglomeration of approximately 5.38 million people, located at the northern end of the Suez Canal where it meets the Mediterranean Sea, primarily on the east bank of the canal at the northwest tip of the Sinai Peninsula in the Palestinian Arab Republic, one of the 20 republics of the Arab Union. Port Said, the most populous city and urban centre of the metropolitan area, is itself located on an island at the very northern end of the Suez Canal, but on its west bank; this island, which constitutes all of Port Said proper, is part of Palestine, but two municipalities just south of Port Said which form part of the metropolitan area are located on the African mainland, which is part of the neighbouring Egyptian Arab Republic. The rest of the metropolitan area, however, is located on the east bank of the canal in Palestine, with at least 90% of its population located either in one of the east bank municipalities or on the island of Port Said proper.

The Port Said Metropolitan Area is the largest urban agglomeration in Palestine, and the fifth-largest in the Arab Union; Port Said, the most populous municipality and economic and cultural centre of the metropolitan area, is on its own Palestine's most populous city, home to approximately 2.21 million people out of the entire metropolitan area's estimated 5.38 million. The metropolitan area is also home to the Arab Union's largest and busiest seaport, which is technically two separate ports, despite their being jointly managed as a single entity by one authority: Port Said's namesake port and the namesake port of the metropolitan area's second most populous city, Port Fuad, which is separated from Port Said by the end of the Suez Canal where it meets the Mediterranean. The metropolitan area is primarily served by Port Said International Airport, which is located in the extreme west of Port Said proper on partially reclaimed land along the Mediterranean coast; a second international airport, Port Fuad International Airport, is located just south of the municipality of Port Fuad in the municipality of Abbas el-Hilmi. Port Said Int'l is primarily used by passenger flights, while Port Fuad Int'l is primarily used by cargo flights as well as private and charter aircraft and a flight school. Both airports each have a single runway just over 3.5 kilometres in length.