Egyptian Airports Company (EAC) has invited firms to bid by 12 February 2019 for the contract to construct a new passenger terminal at Borg el-Arab International airport located south-west of Alexandria.

EAC and Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) finalised $180m in financing for the project in June.

MEED reported that the loan’s annual interest rate is set at 0.1 per cent, payable within 40 years with a ten year grace period.

The new terminal will be built on a 36,000 square metre site, and will be designed to handle up to four million passengers annually.

Borg el-Arab International processed 2.21 million passengers in 2017, according to data from the Egyptian Holding Company for Airports and Air Navigation (EHCAAN).

EAC expects to open a new airport, Sphinx International, in the third quarter of 2018. Located on the Cairo to Alexandria desert road, the airport will handle up to 600 passengers an hour.

The Egyptian military financed the construction of Sphinx International, as well as two other airports under construction: New Capital Cairo and Bredwell International.

Passenger traffic at Egyptian airports rose by 10 per cent in 2017, the second-highest growth rate since 2011, when the Arab Spring triggered a 27 per cent drop in passenger traffic.

Russia’s decision to lift its two-year ban on Egypt-bound flights following the terrorist attack on a Metrojet plane over the Sinai Peninsula in 2015 is expected to sustain passenger growth in Egypt’s main airports this year.