Kuwait International airport’s Terminal 4 (T4) became operational on 8 August.

South Korea’s Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC) implemented the terminal’s operational readiness and airport transfer (Orat), as part of the $127.6m contract it signed in April this year to operate and maintain the terminal for five years.

T4, which can handle up to 4.5 million passengers annually, will cater exclusively to national carrier Kuwait Airways.

A team comprising Turkey’s Cengiz Insaat Sanayi Ve Ticaret and the local firm First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Company built Terminal 4 for $174m. The terminal was originally designed as a temporary facility to absorb excess passenger traffic from the existing terminal while the $4.3bn Terminal 2 is built.

A new terminal at the airport dedicated to low-cost carrier Jazeera Airways  opened in May this year. The terminal can handle up to 1.2 million passengers a year.

Kuwait International airport handled 13.7 million passengers in 2017, an increase of 17 per cent compared with 2016, and nearly three times the capacity of its existing main terminal.