Oman Airports Management Company has extended the deadline to 10 August for the submission of proposals for several contracts for the under-construction Muscat International airport.

The original deadline was on 27 July.

The first tender is for the design and supervision consultancy services of a central warehouse building at the airport.

The second is for the design, supply and installation of storage systems equipment and tools for maintenance workshops.

The third tender is for the operation and maintenance of electromechanical and civil facilities in the passenger terminal building.

Last year, OAMC awarded US-based DHL a cargo handling contract for Muscat International.

It was expecting to award a separate cargo handling service contract for the Salalah International airport in the second quarter of 2017 but the award has also been delayed.

In May, Aimen Sultan al-Hosni, chief executive at OAMC, told MEED that he expects the firm to tender the main contract for the development of real estate and retail development projects linked to the Muscat and Salalah International airports before end of 2017.

Construction work at Muscat International is expected to be completed before the end of 2017. The airport expects to enter full operations by early 2018.

A team of Lebanon’s Consolidated Contractors Company and Turkey’s TAV Construction won the $1.17bn infrastructure works package for both the Muscat and Salalah international airports in 2007. A joint venture of Bechtel (US), Enka (Turkey) and the local Bahwan Engineering Company won the $1.8bn contract for the construction of both airports’ passenger terminal buildings and related facilities in 2010.

Designed by France’s ADPI, the new airport in Muscat has a capacity to handle up to 12 million passengers a year. Succeeding phases of the airport expansion plan entails bringing the airport’s capacity to up to 48 million.

Muscat International processed more than 12 million passengers and about 162,000 tonnes of cargo in 2016. These figures are 17 per cent and 21 per cent higher year-on-year, respectively.