German manufacturer Kusch has won a Dhs1.3 million contract to supply passenger seating at Fujairah International Airport where an expansion of the existing terminal is creating a new level of security in the region.
The contract was signed at the Airport Build & Supply Exhibition in Dubai today by the airport’s general manager, Khalid AlMazroui, and Klaus Schmidt, the company’s UAE manager.
Kusch seating will be installed in the departure lounges and seating and tables will be provided for the restaurants as part of the expansion of the passenger terminal which will be completed by the end of the year.
The multi-million Dirham expansion includes the extension of the departure lounge, duty free complex, shops and restaurants and installation of an electronic gate system which will allow fingerprint only access to the airport and airport ramp for staff.
“Staff working during certain shifts will be able to gain access to the airport only during the hours when they are scheduled to be working,” said AlMazroui. “This provides a new level of security and we are the first airport in the Gulf to introduce this kind of system.”
Cargo accounts for around 80% of traffic at Fujairah International Airport, which currently handles 30 flights per day and around 100,000 passengers a year, largely from the Indian Subcontinent and the CIS countries.
In contrast, the UAE Dhs21 billion (US $ 6.8 billion) expansion of Abu Dhabi International Airport will initially create a capacity for handling 20 million passengers per year, and ultimately for 50 million passengers a year.
Delegates attending one of the opening day seminars at the Airport Build & Supply Exhibition on Monday were given a project update by Hanan Sayed Worrell, Projects Manager, SCADIA, which is managing the multi-phase project.
Held under the patronage of Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of the Department of Civil Aviation, Dubai and Chairman of Emirates Group, the Airport Build & Supply Exhibition at Airport Expo Dubai is organised by Streamline Marketing.
Worrell said the Abu Dhabi airport expansion is moving ahead rapidly, with an interim 8,000 sq.m terminal set to open in August capable of handling up to two million passengers per year. Terminal 2, a quick solution to air traffic volumes which have outgrown the current terminal, is going from the drawing board to reality in a matter of months. The next few weeks will see more key developments in the five-year project .
Ten leading international airport terminal design consultants are currently being interviewed for the job of designing a major new midfield passenger terminal. From these ten four to five will be short-listed to enter a design competition for the new terminal complex by the end of the month.
Another short list of consultants is being developed for the new 110 metre Air Traffic Control Tower which will include all the new navigational, visual and radar control systems. The design competition will begin next month. Doubling the existing airport land area in Abu Dhabi to 3,400 hectares, the project is part of US$20 billion worth of airport development and expansion in the Middle East under the spotlight the Airport Build & Supply Exhibition, which concludes tomorrow night (Wednesday).
