Bidders are still awaiting the award of the information and communications technologies (ICT) package for Bahrain’s airport modernisation programme (AMP).

Mohamed Yousif al-Binfalah, CEO of Bahrain Airports Company (BAC), told MEED in June that they have received three offers and that they were targeting to issue the letter of award “by the first week of July.”

The Eid holidays, which conclude the month-long Ramadan period, however, coincided with the target award date, which means the contract award could take longer than expected.

MEED reported in April that the US’ Aeronautical Radio (Arinc), now owned by Rockwell Collins, submitted the lowest offer for the contract valued at BD26.47m ($70m), in partnership with the UAE’s Bayanat.

The offer was 20 per cent lower compared to the lowest priced option of $83.9m submitted by France’s Thales.

The French firm offered three other higher-priced options for the contract valued at $86.4m, $93.9m and $96.5m, respectively.

The UAE’s Smart Technology Services offered two options, both priced higher than those submitted by Thales. It priced the first option at $90.2m and the second at $94m.

Sources requesting anonymity, however, have told MEED that Switzerland-based Sita, could be in the running for the contract, apart from the three bidders whose technical and commercial offers were being reviewed over the past few months based on public records of the Bahrain Tender Board website.

Sita has been implementing a five-year project to automate staff rostering and allocation at the Bahrain International airport (BIA). It also announced in May a plan to deploy and maintain self-service kiosks as well as a shared connectivity platform at the airport.

The BAC is not immediately available for comment, while a Sita spokesperson declined to comment citing protocols of the bidding process.

The ICT package is one of the sub-contract packages within the $1.1bn airport modernisation programme, which is mainly funded by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD).

The largest item  within the AMP is the construction of a new terminal building, which was awarded in January to a joint venture of Dubai-based Arabtec Construction and Turkey’s TAV.