Egypt, Turkey join up in Airport Expansion Projects

Cairo, Egypt | August 02, 2007 by D-8 Secretariat

Egypt Expands Alexandria Borg Al-Arab Airport , and Cairo International Airport will be Constructed by Turkish TAV

On the interest of developing cooperation in civil aviation, D-8 Secretariat observed that starting August 1, 2007, the expansion of Egypt ’s small Alexandria Borg Al-Arab airport will be constructed replacing Al-Nozha. Within 22 months, the renovated airport will be completed and inaugurated on June 1, 2009. The project, constructed by Orascom Egypt and Belgian BESIX, will add a new gateway to upgrade the airport’s passenger and cargo handling capacity in response to growing demand, and in order to improve convenience and safety.

The expansion of the Borg Al-Arab airport from a small airport, 43 km southwest of Alexandria, to a main airport begun in 2005 when the Egyptian government obtained a $50 million soft loan from the Japanese government. The LE309 million loan, at an interest rate of 1.5 per cent with a seven-year grace period, is payable over a 25-year period. To back this up, Egypt ’s National Bank is providing a LE300 million loan. The sum also covers other areas such as telecommunications, water supply and sewage.

Once the construction project done, The Borg Al-Arab airport will become a terminal with expanded capacity to handle a million passengers and 4,000 tones of cargo per year, as well as upgrading of existing facilities. Borg Al-Arab airport opened in 1998 mainly to serve passengers from the Delta and to handle part of the growing cargo business that threatened to overwhelm Cairo Airport ’s capacities at the time.

This will provide the local population as well as foreign visitors and businessmen with a first-class facility in terms of safety, convenience and the volume of passengers and cargoes it is designed to deal with. The site of the project is also an area where various industries, such as petrochemicals, metal refining, agriculture and tourism, have been expanding.

Cairo International Airport is now carrying out its biggest-ever expansion project, constructing a new terminal which will take the airport’s capacity from nine million passengers per annum to 20 million passengers. The $280 million project is financed by the World Bank and construction is being carried out by Turkish TAV Construction.

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