KUWAIT plans to choose a winning bid shortly from among 18 foreign companies competing to build a new airport, a key project in the country’s economic development plan, an official said.

The airport, which is expected to cost around KD900 million ($3.2 billion) and open in 2020, is aimed to serve as a regional air travel hub.

Kuwait currently has one international airport. The target is to get 25 million passengers passing through the new airport each year, said Faisal Al Ustaith, a director at the Ministry of Public Works. Kuwait’s current capacity is around seven million passengers annually. Several of the bidding companies may join together to form a consortium that gets the winning bid, Al Ustaith said.

The airport will have 51 aircraft gates, with 21 slated for use by large aircraft such as the Airbus 380, he said.