Bahrain Airport Company is inviting contractors to submit prequalification documents by 12 October for a contract to carry out the main works for the expansion of the terminal at Bahrain International airport.

The work involves the expansion and upgrade of the terminal building itself, the construction of new passenger lounges and baggage handling systems.

This expansion will increase the airport’s capacity to 12 million passengers a year from the current 4 million.

In April 2010, France’s Aeroports de Paris Ingenierie (Adpi) won the contract to prepare the masterplan for the 30-year expansion of Bahrain airport.

Bahrain Airport Company (Bac) also has future plans to build two new terminals at the airport, however expansion of the existing terminal remains the focus (MEED 5:4:11).

The first of the new terminals was due to be Terminal 1A, which was planned to be built alongside the existing Bahrain airport terminal and have a capacity of 15 million passengers a year. Terminal 1B will be built to replace the existing terminal once terminal 1A is complete. Bac received 39 prequalification documents for the design contract for the two terminals and was initially planning to award the deal by November 2010 (MEED 15:4:10).