KUWAIT is planning to spend $6 billion to expand the capacity of its international airport to 13 million passengers by 2016, the head of the civil aviation directorate said.

Fawaz Al Farah said the work is expected to begin this year.

The passenger terminal, which was built in 1980, currently has the capacity to handle around seven million passengers a year but this will increase to 13 million by 2016, on completion of the expansion project.

The capacity could be increased to 25 million by 2025, he added.

Under the plan, the passenger terminal will be expanded to 710,000 sq m at a cost of $3 billion. The rest of the funds will be spent on widening runways, building a new control tower and a cargo village, Al Farah said.

Kuwait airport handled 8.5 million passengers in 2011 with the number expected to exceed nine million passengers this year, according to him. The state’s Kuwait Airways and the privately-owned low-cost Jazeera Airways operate from the airport.