Work on the BD126 million ($334.2 million) first phase expansion of the Bahrain International Airport has received the green light with the award of the design contract to JacobsGibb, a subsidiary of the London-based Jacobs Engineering Group.

The expansion will make it the most modern and user-friendly airport in the region, according to the Deputy Prime Minister and Transportation Minister Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa.
Works and Housing Minister Fahmi Al Jowder signed the BD12.95 million deal recently for the project’s state-of-the-art designs with JacobsGibb in association with HOK Architects and the local Bahrain consulting firm Mohammed Salahuddin Consulting Engineering Bureau (MSCEB).
Civil Aviation Affairs (CAA) undersecretary Captain Abdulrahman Al Gaoud said the expansion, when completed in 2010, would increase the airport capacity to handle up to 15 million passengers a year.
Phase one of the project involves the expansion of the airport terminal building with an additional 125,000 sq m of floor area to cater to the increase in passenger and aircraft traffic up to 2015. The current floor area is 51,000 sq m. Besides the additional floor area, the terminal will boast an additional seven gates serviced by state-of-the-art air bridges, giving a total of 14 gates with air bridges, as well as 11 additional remote parking stands.
The seven additional gates would comprise stands to accommodate five code E type aircraft, which are Airbus A330 or A340 and Boeing 747 or 777 aircraft.
One stand will be for code C type aircraft, which are the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 as well as one code F New Large Aircraft (NLA). An existing parking bay will be refurbished to accommodate code F aircraft providing a total of two stands at the expanded terminal to cater to the Airbus A380-type super-jumbo aircraft.
The construction approach will be designed such that it will permit the existing terminal operations to continue until the expansion is completed. The majority of worksites are landside, providing safer construction and minimal disruption of airside operations.
The project is expected to take 49 months to complete with an expected design period of 15 months and a construction period of 24 months and a period set aside for tendering in between.
Works and Housing Ministry Public Works Affairs under-secretary Nayef Al Kalali said although the present airport was designed to handle only 3 million passengers “we are now handling 7 million.” This is done using every expertise, by the airport director and his staff.
IATA has forecast a yearly passenger increase of four per cent for the region while in the Far East it is seven per cent. “One year, however, the passenger increase shot up by 22 per cent which is really alarming. That is why we have a long-term plan. We are not stopping at 15 million. We are now thinking beyond our times,” said Al Kalali.
“The design of the airport is unique, its beauty lies in that within the same area it can be expanded and capacity increased. As soon as the first phase is completed, we would be in a position to start the second phase targeting a passenger handling capacity of 22 million. The third phase of expansion would take the airport handling capacity to 45 million. Together with expanding the area at the airport, we are also training personnel to handle the work that would come additionally. The baggage handling capacity will increase from 3,000 bags per hour to 15,000 bags. The check-in counters will increase from 40 to 80.
“We have studied everything that a passenger would need. It should be a user-friendly airport. People would not have to walk distances within the airport, everything would be within their easy reach. The beauty of Bahrain airport now is that once a passenger disembarks, he can get out in 15 minutes. We want to maintain that even after the expansion. That is one of the challenges we face,” he added.
Martin Stevenson, Jacobs’ director of Operations said: “Jacobs has been in Bahrain for a long time. Jacobs is one of the world’s largest and most diverse providers of professional technical services. It is a huge opportunity for us. The airport project would exhibit part of our skills for delivering transport infrastructure, which we do worldwide.”
Gibb was the original designer of the airport in the early 70s, and has made it a very simple airport to get around. “It is a very intuitive airport not like others where people keep changing levels all the time. While moving towards the facilities that would cater to 12 million passengers or more we want to keep that simplicity,” he said.
Jacobs’ services include scientific and speciality consulting as well as all aspects of design, construction and operations and maintenance.
In addition, sophisticated computer modelling and information management tools enable Jacobs’ airport specialist to forecast human traffic through gates and terminals.