Borg El Arab Airport, Alexandria, Egypt

Modernisation plans are underway at Borg El Arab Airport in Alexandria with financial assistance from the Japanese Government to the tune of LE309m. The project, set to be completed in late 2009, includes the improvement of the airport's passenger and cargo terminals.

Once upgraded, Borg El Arab will become the main airport for Alexandria, replacing El Nouzha. The $97m contract for construction of the new facilities was awarded to Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) and BESIX Group joint venture. Japan Airport Consultants, Netherlands Airport Consultants and Engineering Consultants Group (Egypt) were the main designers of the modernisation plans.

Borg El Arab airport

The airport is located 43km from Alexandria, Egypt's second-largest city. It was inaugurated in 1998 to serve passengers from the Nile Delta and to handle the growing cargo business, which was testing the capacity of the Cairo International Airport. The airport remained secondary to Alexandria's main airport, El Nouzha.

Over the years, business at El Nouzha began to suffer from deteriorating services, building violations and navigation difficulties. This resulted in the airport losing two of its navigation passages, which in turn disqualified the airport from accepting wide-body aircraft. Cairo's Imbaba Airport, which was used for aviation training, was also shut down as buildings had been constructed too close to the airfield.

As a result, Cairo International Airport was handling the majority of passenger and cargo volume passing through Egypt. However, relentless vertical and horizontal expansion of the suburbs of Heliopolis Nasr City prompted action from the government.

In addition, industries such as petrochemicals, metal refining, agriculture and tourism have been expanding around the airport. The number of passengers who would be visiting Alexandria was projected to increase from 440,000 in 2002 to one million in 2014. The modernisation and expansion of Borg El Arab Airport was taken up in response to these needs.

Modernisation plans

The modernisation and expansion plans include construction of a new passenger terminal with a total floor area of 21,789m² to handle 1,000 passengers an hour. By 2014, the terminal is expected to handle one million passengers a year.

The terminal will have three floors, 18 counters to receive baggage and a computerised system for delivering baggage. There will be one baggage belt for departing passengers and three for arriving passengers. It will also have eight visa counters for departing passengers and ten for the arriving ones.

The terminal will be equipped with state-of-the-art aeronautical equipment in accordance with the standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

The modernisation plan also includes construction of a cargo terminal building of 2,000m² with a capacity of 10,000t a year. Air traffic control towers with necessary auxiliary buildings, aircraft parking aprons and taxiways for nine aircraft stands, an aircraft fuel station and an 800m² rescue and fire station are also part of the project.

Additionally, an access road and car park, a primary power station, a water tank and a sewage treatment plant, as well as various administrative and utility structures covering 3,000m² are being built. An apron area, which will accommodate 11 different-sized aircraft, and a goods storehouse with a capacity of 5t will also be constructed. All necessary systems and equipment including CCTV, FIDS, CUTE, building monitoring and access control are included in the plans.

Egyptian Holding Company for Airports and Air Navigation head Ibrahim Manna said: "In the area of civil aviation this airport promises to 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."

Design

The main designer for modernisation and expansion of Borg El Arab airport is Japan Airport Consultants. The design of the passenger terminal is based on an image of 'water and sky'. It incorporates elements of Egyptian culture and history as well as the geographical location of Alexandria. The main feature of this concept is an arc-shaped roof with a curved airside façade.

The facade will provide the terminal with a dynamic interior space, shorter walking distance for passengers and more natural lighting. It also allows the accommodation of more wide-bodied aircraft.

Future expansion is also more practical with this concept as the curved airside façade design can be continued or changed to straight façade without altering the original image of the passenger terminal building.

Financing

The modernisation and expansion plans have been undertaken with the assistance provided by the Japanese Government. Japan suspended soft loans to Egypt in 1991 but resumed them in 2002. Since then loans worth LE5.25bn have been extended to Egypt.

For the airport modernisation project, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) provided a soft loan of LE309m. The loan has a seven-year grace period and is payable over 25 years at an interest rate of 1.5%.

The loan is being used for building and improving the facilities at the airport as well as for consultation services, which include bidding assistance, detailed design, monitoring and supervision during implementation.

Contractors

The airport modernisation is the second contract awarded to the Egyptian Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) and BESIX Group joint venture. The initial contract is worth $30m and covers the construction of a new air traffic control tower at Cairo International Airport. The project is likely to be completed in late 2009.

Future expansions

As passenger movement is expected to increase and reach two million passengers a year by 2024, there are plans to expand the terminal to an area of 34,000m².