Doha: Hamad International Airport (HIA) has floated the tenders for the third phase of the expansion of the airport, which will be completed before 2022. The airport will also witness the construction of an Airport City which will provide significant future investment opportunities, including a free trade zone, an office and business complex, and hotels among others.
“For the third phase of expansion, the tenders have already been floated. Some of the contractors will start implementing projects on the second or third quarter of this year,” Eng Badr Mohammed Al Meer, Chief Operating Officer at Hamad International Airport, told reporters on the sidelines of suhoor hosted by HIA. He added that the expansion project is expected to complete before FIFA 2022 World Cup.
In a short span of five years, HIA has successfully completed the first major phase of its Smart Airport program, which enables the 5-star home carrier Qatar Airways process more than 25 percent of its passengers using self-service check-in and bag-drop facilities. Earlier this year, HIA had embarked on its second phase of expansion plans to accommodate 53 million passengers annually at the airport by 2022. The airport has already floated tender for third phase of expansion.
HIA organised an appreciation Suhoor at The St. Regis Doha on Monday, which was attended by stakeholders, business partners and media members. In his welcome speech, Abdulaziz Al Mass, Vice- President Marketing and Communications at Hamad International Airport, said: “It is our pleasure to host our stakeholders, who we consider as our partners in success on the special occasion of Ramadan. We have taken this unique opportunity to showcase our gratitude for their support towards HIA’s successful journey.”
During the event, HIA revealed a corporate video marking the airport’s fifth year anniversary. Qatar’s state-of-the-art terminal addressed stakeholders on the airport’s mission to support Qatar’s National Vision 2030, by highlighting their expansion plans and smart airport vision initiatives. HIA also emphasized on their role and responsibility in incorporating the Qatari culture into the airport, both from an environmental as well as a cultural perspective to provide travellers with an unmatched passenger experience.
HIA has also been ranked as the ‘Fourth Best Airport in the world’ at the Skytrax World Airport Awards 2019 and received the ‘Best Airport in the Middle East’ for the fifth consecutive year. HIA has served a total of 9.16 million passengers in the first quarter of 2019. HIA has also handled 56,573 aircraft movements and 505,581 tonnes of cargo in total from January to March 2019.
