French design and engineering consultancy Egis has secured a contract for the enlargement of the existing terminal at Ras Al Khaimah International Airport (RKT) in the UAE.

The contract was awarded at the Dubai Airshow, an air show being held from 14 to 18 November.

Egis will be in charge of the extended terminal’s initial design, in addition to being tasked with the concept design study of a new terminal.

The new terminal is projected to manage nearly two million passengers over the coming decade.

This initiative has been taken to address growth in passenger volume according to the guidelines of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Ras Al Khaimah International Airport CEO Athanasios Titonis said: “In order to keep up with this demand of passenger traffic and welcome more and more airline partners, our immediate focus is on working to enhance our existing terminal at the earliest and simultaneously work on designing a brand new terminal with international standards and innovative facilities and we are confident that our partnership with Egis will help us achieve this.”

Among Egis’ other Middle East airport projects includes its role as the project manager for design review and construction supervision of the new airside infrastructure at Riyadh Airport.

Currently, the company is working at Amaala International Airport for the design and development of a greenfield airport.

In a separate development, Dubai-based carrier Emirates entered a codeshare alliance with Gulf Air.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) reached between the parties will offer ‘reciprocal loyalty benefits’ on Skywards by Emirates and Gulf Air’s Falconflyer programmes. Plans are also on to cooperate in the cargo segment.

Passengers on flights run by these two carriers will be able to book ‘single-ticket travel’ and ‘one-stop baggage check-in’ to their final destinations.

Recently, Emirates signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Garuda Indonesia for a codeshare pact focused on offering improved connectivity.