EXCLUSIVE: Abu Dhabi extends consultant's airport contract

26 September 2018
Abu Dhabi airport’s Midfield Terminal Building will be able to handle up to 25 million passengers annually upon completion

Abu Dhabi Airports Company (Adac) has extended the operational readiness and airport transfer (Orat) contract for the Midfield Terminal Building at Abu Dhabi International airport with Spanish consultancy firm Ineco, sources close to the scheme tell MEED.

MEED understands Adac sought bids from at least two international airport operators in June but subsequently decided to extend the existing contract with Ineco, which signed a three-year Orat deal with Adac in 2014.

The terminal was initially scheduled for completion in 2017.

However, construction delays have prompted Adac to move the target completion date towards the second half of 2019, meaning it has to either extend the existing contract with Ineco or appoint a new company to complete the Orat.

An Orat programme involves developing procedures and processes, and testing all facilities, systems and machinery prior to the opening of an airport.

MEED understands the complex design of the iconic new terminal and the ongoing full operations of the existing passenger terminal at the airport requires a highly comprehensive process of developing and testing those procedures, and staff preparation and training.

Abu Dhabi International processed 24.48 million passengers in 2016, exceeding the existing airport’s capacity of 17.5 million passengers a year. However, passenger traffic growth at the airport significantly slowed during that year, which coincided with the start of the restructuring programme of Etihad Airways, from 23 per cent in 2015 to 5.1 per cent in 2016.

Adac has not so far published passenger traffic data for 2017.

The Midfield Terminal Complex is being built between the two runways of Abu Dhabi International. It is designed to handle up to 25 million passengers a year.

It will feature 27 kilometres of baggage-handling conveyors with a capacity to process 19,000 bags an hour. It aims to offer 45 minute connection times, including baggage transfers. The terminal is also expected to feature more than 4,300 closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras.

A team comprising US-based Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF), UK firm Ove Arup, the Netherlands’ Naco and India-based BNP Associates designed the terminal.

A joint venture of Turkey’s TAV Construction and Lebanon-based Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) won the main civil construction contract worth AED10.5bn ($2.9bn) in June 2012.

Adac last month appointed former Dubai Airports Company executive Bryan Thompson as CEO.

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