Rafic Hariri International Airport (BEY/OLBA), Beirut, Lebanon

Rafic Hariri International Airport, which was renamed from Beirut International Airport in June 2005, is a vital facility that plays a major role in linking Lebanon with the outside world, benefiting the country's business and tourism sectors. The airport is located in the Khaldeh suburb south of the capital and around 9km from downtown Beirut.

Opened in 1954, it was renovated in 1977 and the present runways were rehabilitated between 1982 and 1984 (missile attacks in the 2006 Lebanon-Israel conflict caused significant damage to the three operational runways, which caused the airport to be closed from July 2006 to mid-August 2006).

The first phase of the new airport started in 1994 and was inaugurated in 1998. The second phase was completed by June 2000. Combined, these projects cost around $450m, funded by the European Bank for Investment and the Kuwaiti Fund for Arab Economic Development.

Payments for completed projects were taken from a special fund made up of airport taxes and fees, based on the assumption that airport revenues should increase with the development of air travel and increases of passenger numbers.

The airport is operated and maintained by the Middle East Airports Services (MEAS), which is itself owned by the national carrier, Middle East Airlines (MEA).

PHASE 1 – THE KARAGULLA CONTRACT

The first contract, awarded to the Fahmi Karagulla Contracting Group, included the construction of a new eastern runway (03/21) (take-off runway) and was worked on from 1994 until 1997 at a cost of $60m. The new 03/21 runway is 3,800m (12,467ft) long and 45m wide with two asphalt sides of 7.5m width each (the old 03/21 runway is now used as a taxiway).

In addition a new landing runway (17/35) was constructed at a length of 3,395m (11,138ft) protruding into the sea. This protrusion into the sea was part of the design in order to move landing traffic in a direction away from the city to improve safety and also reduce aircraft noise.

Designed so that planes do not have to stop and turn before leaving the landing zone, the new 17/35 runway can accommodate a touch-down every three minutes, twice as fast as the airport's other runways. Work on this phase of the project included the diversion of Al Ghadir river and the building of installations on the Al Qassis Canal, used for draining rain water from Southern Suburb.

Water channels were installed to divert two rivers away from the airport, and coastal land along the Khalde highway was developed to accommodate further expansion projects. A service road on the eastern side of the airport was also opened, connecting the new runway to the air plane parking zone.

PHASE 2 – THE HOKTEF AND CCC CONTRACT

In 1994, the German-Lebanese Group, Hoktef and CCC was awarded the largest contract, worth around $390m, for the redevelopment of the terminal building.

Before commencement of the planned work, a preparatory period extending over a number of months saw the construction of a centre for representatives of the consultants, officials from the Civil Aviation Directorate and the Council for Development and Reconstruction, as well as the preparation of Ouzai port to store the necessary demolishing material and equipment. The project also required the appropriations of around 800,000m² of land costing $160m.

Phase 2 also included the rehabilitation of a number of buildings, including the structures hosting electric generation and air conditioning, the aviation safety centre, the civil aviation workshop and garage, the firefighting training centre, as well as the customs, freight and catering buildings.

On top of this, new construction projects were sanctioned for a private aviation building, a VIP building, a building with a parking capacity for 2,200 cars and a building for sorting mail. New buildings combined to bring up the total area for the terminal to 150,000m².

By 1998, the first phase of the new terminal had been completed. The four-storey building was located just to the east of the old terminal building and houses gates 1-12.

Following the inauguration of the new facility the old terminal was demolished and construction on the western section (phase two) began, which was itself completed in 2000 but not inaugurated until 2002. This facility housed gates 13-23 (21 have jetways of which gates 2 and 3 have dual jetways and two are bus gates).

The terminal is able to handle six million passengers annually (current capacity requires around 3.5 million a year) and is expected to be able to handle 16 million passengers by 2035 (more expansion will be required but additional repairs may be necessary first after the 2006 attacks on Lebanon by Israel).

The airport's general aviation terminal, built to accommodate VIP passengers and charter flights was opened on 17 June 2005. The GAT is on the northwestern corner of the airport and has state of the art facilities. Future plans may well involve the construction of 12 hangars for the GAT and also seven new gates to accommodate superjumbos such as the A380. The old 17/35 runway may also be refurbished.

CUTE SYSTEM INTEGRATION

In 1998, the airport selected SITA to install the CUTE (Common Use Terminal Equipment) system to automate its passenger processing operations.

The system is designed to improve the efficiency and speed with which passengers can be checked in, particularly in an environment where passenger numbers at the airport are increasing year after year. CUTE works as a passenger management system and enables airlines or their handling agents to access their own applications in real time across a shared network and shared set of terminal equipment.