By Paul Tate
AMMAN — The Ministry of Transport on Thursday qualified six consortiums to bid for a tender to construct a new terminal at Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA), a ministry official said.
The three-year 90,000 square metre expansion project is aimed at upgrading the airport to meet the expected increase in passenger traffic over the next 30 years.
The winner of the tender, estimated to be in the region of JD200 million, will construct a new terminal adjacent to the existing one on a build, operate and transfer basis, said Amer Hadidi, secretary general of the ministry.
The target date for the final bid is early January 2007, with the winner to be announced by early February.
“We originally had expressions of interest from 22 consortiums, eight of which submitted requests for qualification,” Hadidi told The Jordan Times.
Out of the eight applications, the Project Steering Committee yesterday announced six qualified bidders.
“The qualified bidders are amongst the leading international and regional airport operators, construction companies and financial institutions. Their participation in the Queen Alia International Airport Project affirms the strong interest of international investors in Jordan,” said a ministry statement.
Construction of the new terminal, part of the Kingdom’s bid to become a regional financial, trade and transport hub, is scheduled to be completed by 2010 and will increase the airport’s passenger flow from the current 3.2 million a year to nine million.
This figure is expected to rise to 12.8 million passengers a year by 2030, according to the ministry.
“Our aim is to build a state of the art airport to increase the competitiveness of Jordan as a regional hub and cater for the increase in passengers and tourists for the next thirty years,” said Hadidi.
Jordan, however, faces stiff competition in the region from Gulf States flush with petrodollars and already investing heavily in airport expansion projects, while Dubai has already established itself as a key transit route and financial centre.
Earlier this week, Kuwait announced it intends to plough $2.1 billion into a major expansion project for its international airport. The project includes infrastructure work, expanding the airport’s two runways and building a new runway.
Qatar is also involved in a mega project to build the new Doha International Airport to handle around 12.5 million passengers a year after the first phase of construction, due to be completed by early 2009 at a cost of $2.5 billion. The project is designed to accommodate the new Airbus A380-800 ‘Super Jumbo’.
Phases two and three of the project are projected to cost an additional $5 billion.
“We are not able to compete with airports that are heavily state-subsidised. We are more focussed on the Levant area due to our geographical location, which we believe gives us an advantage over our competitors and will enable us to increase long haul flights to the Far East,” said Hadidi.
QAIA opened in 1983 and in 2005 handled around 3 million passengers.
The six qualified bidders
• Alfa Consortium consisting of Aéroports de Paris (France), J&P (Cyprus), ADIC (UAE), Noor (Kuwait) and EDGO (Jordan).
• Amman Airport Partners consisting of Hochtief (Germany), Mubadala (UAE), Saudi Oger (Saudi Arabia), and United Arab Investors (Jordan).
• Celebi Consortium consisting of Celebi Holdings (Turkey), Vienna Airports (Austria), Nurol Construction (Turkey), YDA (Turkey).
• IIG Consortium consisting of IIG (Kuwait), Banco Efisa (Portugal), Soares de Costa (Portugal), and Aeroportos de Portugal (Portugal).
• TAV Consortium consisting of TAV Airports Holding (Turkey), CCC (Greece), and Kawar (Jordan).
• UDCH Consortium consisting of UDCH (Kuwait), KJH (Kuwait) and Malaysia Airports Holding (Malaysia).
Friday-Saturday, October 6-7, 2006
No comments:
Post a Comment