Bahrain Airport Company is evaluating bids for the contract to develop and operate an airport hotel at Bahrain International, according to the firm’s CEO, Mohamed Bin Falah.

Bin Falah said they received two bids for the contract, but did not disclose when they expect to award the contract.

The planned hotel is part of Bahrain’s ongoing airport modernisation programme that comprises the construction of a new passenger terminal, fuel farm and multi-storey car parks, among others.

Construction work on the $1.1bn passenger terminal at Bahrain International airport is progressing according to schedule, with the project’s first phase expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2019.

The first phase of the construction works entails 95 per cent of the entire project. It includes the operational readiness and airport transfer (ORAT) process, which typically takes six to seven months.

Germany’s Fraport signed a 32-month ORAT contract with Bahrain Airport Company in April 2017.

MEED understands the existing passenger terminal at Bahrain International will be demolished once the expanded airport is 80 per cent complete.

A team of UAE-based Arabtec and Turkey’s TAV Airports won the Bahrain airport expansion contract in January 2016. Construction work began in April of that year.

An estimated 70 per cent of the scheme is being funded by the GCC Fund, primarily by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development. The rest is being provided by the Bahraini government.

Bahrain expects the under-construction terminal, designed to handle 14 million passengers annually, to help offer better services for the next 15 to 20 years.

A new airport on reclaimed land is also being planned.