The first phase of the $750m expansion of Jordan’s Queen Alia International airport will not be fully complete until mid-2013 due to a rephasing of the project.

The first phase involves the construction of a second passenger terminal. While the design of the terminal remains the same, some limited alterations have been made. The terminal was originally scheduled to fully open in the first quarter of 2012.

The passenger terminal will now open at 70 per cent capacity in June 2012, while the rest of the terminal will be operational 12 months later, says Mohannad Qudah, secretary general of Jordan’s Transport Ministry.

The old terminal must be demolished to accommodate the new terminal. This will now be demolished after the new terminal partially opens in 2012. The new terminal will increase total passenger capacity at the airport to nine million each year. In 2009, Queen Alia International handled 4.7 million passengers, which represented a 6.5 per cent increase on figures in 2008 (MEED 10:2:10).

A later phase two will see capacity increase further to 12 million passengers a year.

The expansion of Queen Alia airport is being carried out by the Airport International Group (AIG), which won the build, operate, transfer (BOT) contract in 2007.