Iran’s aviation authorities expect to award the contract for the construction of Terminal 2 at Imam Khomeini International airport in early 2018.

According to a source with knowledge of the scheme, a combination of European and Asian contractors are bidding for the project.

The terminal, which will have the capacity to handle 25 million passengers a year, will be procured using a build, lease, transfer (BLT) model.

The scheme is expected to be completed by 2022.

A new, smaller terminal in the airport, called Salam Terminal, is under construction, and is expected to be completed by mid-2018. The terminal, which has a design capacity of 4 million passengers a year, was originally planned to be used for pilgrimage traffic, but will now be used for international traffic until Terminal 2 is completed.

Imam Khomeini International, located 45 kilometres south of Tehran’s city centre, handled 7.2 million passengers in 2015.