The $214 million second phase of the New Terminal Project at the Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) in Amman, Jordan, which added 43,000sqm to its total area, was recently completed by Airport International Group (AIG), the consortium executing the project.
The project is designed to raise the airport’s annual passenger capacity from the current seven million to up to 12 million passengers, with future plans to increase capacity even further to 16 million passengers per year, said a statement from AIG.
As a result of the expansion, the total number of gates in operation at the airport has nearly doubled from 13 to 25 and two new fixed-link bridges can now accommodate the world’s largest airplane, the Airbus A380.
The expanded facilities also include two new business lounges, two new duty-free areas and eight new prayer rooms, as well as larger monitors, additional electronic-device charging stations and an upgraded wi-fi system. In addition, 10 additional travelators, 24 escalators and 18 lifts have been installed in the expansion to enhance QAIA’s efficient transit process, the statement added.
The consortium behind the project is led by Abu Dhabi-based financial services company Invest AD, the Abu Dhabi Investment Company. Commenting on the inauguration of the second phase of the expansion project, which was attended by Jordan’s Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II, the country’s prime minister Hani Al-Mulki and other dignitaries, Invest AD’s CEO Faras Al Ramahi, said: “This much-anticipated completion of QAIA’s second expansion phase is an extraordinary milestone, and a result of an ambitious vision and a successful partnership between the Group and the Jordanian government, which has been chosen as one of the top 40 private-public partnerships in the world.”
The statement added that since expansion works began at of the airport in 2013, QAIA has received, for two years running, first place for its performance in the 2014 and 2015 ACI ASQ Surveys in the categories of ‘Best Airport by Region: Middle East’, and ‘Best Improvement by Region: Middle East’.