Jordan to Invest $750 Million for Development of International Airport

AL AIN -- Jordan plans $750 million investment in redevelopment of Queen Alia International Airport, or QAIA, in the capital, which will increase its capacity to 21 million passengers on completion.

This was announced on Tuesday by Curtis Grad, chief executive officer, Airport International Group, on the last day of an aviation conference called: 'Low Cost Airlines World MENA 2009'.

"We expect Phase I of this terminal to be ready by early 2012. It will have a capacity to handle 9 million passengers. The Phase II will be able to handle additional 12 million passengers. We are looking at inbound traffic from Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Dubai and Sharjah and other parts of GCC markets to link up with QAIA and benefit from it," Grad said in a statement.

"There are already six Low Cost Carriers, or LCCs, that have a total of 80 arrivals and departures a week to Amman, Jordan. These are Air Arabia, Jazeera Airways, Bahrain Air, Sama Airlines, Nas Air and Fly Dubai," he added.

During the year, QAIA has witnessed a 15 per cent increase in flight volumes, 10 per cent increase in passengers during summer peak and 4 per cent increase in passenger numbers.

Grad said that there is a strong link with the UAE considering that Invest AD, an investment company based in Abu Dhabi hold 38 per cent of its equity, followed by Kuwait's Noor Financial Investments which owns 24 per cent equity.

In his presentation Tim Coombs, Managing Director, Aviation Economics Ltd mentioned that the barriers to start LCC will remain low considering that an airline operating 5 A320 aircraft can be set up with capital of just $10 million.

"The LCC model is well understood, easily copied and globally transferable today. And Hedge Funds / Private Equity industry has surplus funds of $150 billion. It is easy to start LCC even today," he said.

He said that the development of 17 open-skies bilateral agreements between a number of Arab Civil Aviation Commission is an important step for LCCs further success in the region.

Sherif Attia, chief executive officer, Air Cairo, said that the year 2008 was very encouraging compared to the previous year.