New Egyptian airport under expansion.

(From Gulf Construction)

Marsa Alam Airport - constructed as a part of a $1.2 billion project to create a mega Red Sea resort area at Port Ghalib, Egypt - is currently being expanded to boost its handling capacity from 600 to 1,200 passengers per hour

The airport, built in 2001 to transform the fishing village at Marsa Alam into a world-class tourist destination, is currently under an extensive expansion programme including the terminal building and the runway

Work is under way simultaneously at both the runway and the terminal building, which will upgrade the airport's handling capacity from five aircraft per hour to 10 when this expansion phase is fully functional in 2007. The airport - as with the massive Port Ghalib integrated resort community - is being developed by the MA Kharafi Group of Kuwait under a 40-year build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract

The airport now offers a wide array of facilities including a unique duty-free shopping area, food and beverage outlets, ATM and other banking services, 24-hour medical and security services, round-the-clock custom operations and separate VIP and private aircraft passenger lounges

Following the increasing pressure on the facilities at the airport with the volume of tourist traffic constantly on the rise, the developers had proposed improvement plans to the Egyptian authorities

"We are happy the government has accepted our early expansion proposal. The authorities have been very supportive ever since they awarded the MA Kharafi Group the airport's BOT concession contract for 40 years," a spokesman for MA Kharafi says. The airport is designed by the Netherlands Airport Consultants and has Engineering Consultants Group (ECG) as the engineers for the project while the service provision is the responsibility of Caltex-Emaas-Iberotel