The company is carrying out the rehabilitation of BIA as part of its $680 million capital reconstruction contract with the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) had set a date of 1 July for the reopening of the airport but it is understood this has been set back due to technical delays with the project. 'We are targeting July,' says Eric Glibbery, project manager, airports, USAID Iraq reconstruction programme. 'But there are a lot of pieces that have to come together such as immigration, customs, air traffic management and security before we will be ready.'

BIA - originally designed by France's Aeroports de Paris- has capacity to handle up to 7.5 million passengers a year at its three existing terminals. Initially, Bechtel plans to open two gates in one terminal, giving the airport a start-up capacity of 500,000 passengers a year. This it plans to increase to 2.5 million passengers with the opening of a further four gates by the end of 2003. The reopening of civilian services will push military operations using the airport at present onto the old airport, with air traffic controlled from the central tower.

Basra next

Once it has completed its work on reopening Baghdad, Bechtel plans to turn its attention to reopening Basra to commercial flights. 'They have world-class facilities but because of the neglect and lack of investment there is a tremendous amount of internal infrastructure that needs to be replaced. Our focus is on Basra and Baghdad but in the future I expect they will look at the other major population areas like Kirkuk and Mosul,' says Glibbery.

Bechtel expects to award most of the reconstruction subcontracts for both Baghdad and Basra airports to local contractors. Work at BIA has been broken down into 15 contract packages, the most recent of which was awarded on 20 June to the local Saida Company for General Contracts.

Once normal services are resumed at BIA, it is expected that private investment could play a part in developing its facilities further. 'My suggestion to the ministry for the cargo and maintenance facilities is to sell those concessions to a private entity and then let that entity bring the investment in to improve the facilities, which can also bring income into the airport authority,' says Glibbery.