Tender for HIA’s expansion project this year

The project for the expansion of Hamad International Airport (HIA), which is the third phase of its development, will start this year, said Akbar Al Baker, Group Chief Executive of Qatar Airways, Qatar’s national carrier and the operating airline of the iconic airport.
This was revealed yesterday during a press conference held to announce a major accomplishment earned by the HIA, the Qatar’s world-class airport, which has become a popular gateway to the world in a very short span.
“The government has approved the expansion of the new airport (HIA). There is a new steering committee formulated under the chairmanship of H E Abdullah bin Nasser Turki Al Subae (Chairman of Civil Aviation Authority), and I am his deputy, in order to start the process of expanding the airport (HIA) to take the ultimate capacity to over 65 million passengers (annually)”, said Al Baker.
“The expansion project will start during this year to be completed as soon as possible,” he added.
Al Baker said that the committee is expected to announce public tender inviting internationally contracted parties to take part in the tender. The design for the expansion of the airport has already been completed. Commenting about the tentative budget of the project, Al Baker noted that the project will be of the same capacity but there is a new steering committee so he can’t say anything about the budget as of now. “The committee will announced the tender and follow all the due process,” he said.
With just three years of operations, HIA has garnered world-class awards and recognition, including Skytrax Middle East’s Best Airport in 2015 and 2016, Skytrax Best Staff Service in the Middle East 2016 and previously Best Airport Award at the Future Travel Experience (FTE) Asia Awards in 2015.
Speaking about the cutting-edge technology and the e-Gate immigration system at the airport, Al Baker noted that Qatar was among the very few countries in the world to introduce the system first at Doha International Airport (DIA) nearly 10 years ago. But unfortunately people then did not want to use it for several reasons, and people preferred to wait in queues for immigration.
“The new airport (HIA) is much busier than the DIA. The e-Gates have been upgraded in a big way. They are now much faster and more biometrics-friendly. In addition, the cards are now free. So I request all the passengers to enroll for e-Gate,” Al Baker added.
“The use of e-Gate will not only reduce level of stress on the immigration but also make the entry into the country more user-friendly and efficient. And given its growing popularity among passengers, we will have to introduce more e-Gates eventually. ” Highlighting the significance of the state-of-the-art facility, Al Baker also said that the Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani visited the airport yesterday morning to personally supervise the issuance of e-Gate cards to passengers.