US-based Hill International has received a contract extension for its engineering services on Muscat International Airport and Salalah Airport. The deal was originally awarded in 2012.

Awarded by the Transport & Communications Ministry and the Public Authority for Civil Aviation, the one-year extension has an estimated value of about RO30.1m ($78.2m).

Hill was originally awarded a three-year RO41.8m ($108.5m) contract to oversee the development of the Muscat International and Salalah airports in 2012.

The expansion of Muscat International, the largest airport in Oman, includes a new terminal that will have a capacity of 12 million passengers annually. The expansion of Salalah Airport, the second-largest airport in Oman, involves upgrading it from primarily a domestic airport to make it more suitable for international travelers, including building a new runway long enough to handle the A380 Airbus, and a new terminal that will improve the airport’s capacity to 1 million passengers annually.

In late 2010, the Transport & Communications Ministry awarded an RO706m ($1.8bn) contract to a consortium of US’ Bechtel, the local Bahwan Engineering and Turkey’s Enka to build the new passenger terminal at the airport.