The Peninsula On-line: Qatar's leading English Daily

The Peninsula On-line: Qatar's leading English Daily: "BAA, Flughafen, Changi bid for Abu Dhabi airport
Web posted at: 11/14/2006 7:31:59
Source ::: REUTERS
Abu dhabi • UK airport operator BAA, Austria’s Flughafen Wien AG and Singapore’s Changi Airport are competing for a contract to manage Abu Dhabi airport, the Abu Dhabi Airports Authority Co said yesterday.
Abu Dhabi Airports will decide in the next three weeks which of the companies will win an initial 18-month contract to run the Gulf Arab emirate’s biggest airport, Khalifa Al Mazrouei, the state-run company’s chairman said in Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi, whose economy is surging on a tripling in oil prices since 2001, is spending $6.8bn on expanding its airport after starting its own airline.
The airport will handle about 5.6 million passengers this year and capacity will be expanded to 20 million passengers a year in 2010, Mazrouei said.
“The aim is to bring in a professional and world class operator of airports to Abu Dhabi,” Mazrouei said on the sidelines of an investment conference organised by Middle East Economic Digest. The contract will be renewable, he said. "