Kuwait’s Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGCA) has invited firms to bid for multiple contracts related to the operation and maintenance (O&M) of facilities at Kuwait International airport’s Terminal 4.

The first contract is for the operation and management of baggage trolleys, the second for development, operation and maintenance of the parking lot, and the third is for the development, implementation, and management of the duty free shops at the terminal

Bids for the first and second contracts are due on 29 July. Bids for the duty free contract are due on 26 August.

South Korea’s Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC) was appointed in April to operate and maintain (O&M) Terminal 4. The $127.6m O&M contract covers a five-year period and expires in 2023.

In December last year, Italy’s Leonardo was awarded the contract to design, supply and commission the terminal’s baggage handling system (BHS).

Terminal 4, which can handle up to 4.5 million passengers annually, will cater exclusively to national carrier Kuwait Airways. It is expected to begin operations on 8 August.

This will take the number of operating terminals at Kuwait International to four.

The other three are the main terminal, now called Terminal 1; Jazeera Airways terminal (Terminal 5); and Sheikh Saad al-Abdallah Terminal, a small business aviation terminal, which Flydubai has also been using for all Kuwait-bound flights since 2013.

Turkey’s Cengiz Insaat Sanayi Ve Ticaret and the local firm First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Company won the $174m contract to build the terminal in 2016. It was originally designed as a temporary facility to absorb excess passenger traffic from  Terminal 1 while the $4.3bn Terminal 2 is undergoing construction.

Terminal 5, dedicated to low-cost carrier Jazeera Airways, opened in May. The terminal can handle up to 1.2 million passengers a year.

These two new terminals take the airport’s total annual capacity to close to 11 million passengers.

Kuwait International handled 13.7 million passengers in 2017, an increase of 17 per cent compared with 2016, and nearly three times the capacity of Terminal 1.

Last month, Kuwait’s Public Works Ministry (MPW) prequalified 22 groups for the contract to develop the second phase of the Kuwait International airport expansion. That covers the construction of passenger services buildings and the roads that connect to the first phase, the under-construction Terminal 2.