A new airport built by private investors is still looking for more flights. Amirah Ibrahim investigates Egypt's second Build-Operate- Transfer (BOT) airport, which recently become operational, has hitherto been receiving only a weekly flight from England. This week, another weekly flight from Italy is to be added, raising hopes that the airport will stimulate tourism on the North Coast. The new airport is owned and managed by the International Company for Airports (ICA), a subsidiary of KATO Group, which won the contract of Al- Alamein airport project with a 50-year BOT concession, which could be extended to 99 years. Neither the company nor the authorities were willing to reveal the value of the contract. The LE800 million project will be implemented in three phases. The first phase, which has already been completed at a cost of LE170 million, includes the construction of a passenger terminal and a 3.5km runway allowing for the landing of all classes of aircraft, including the giant new AB 380- 800. With two halls for arrivals and two more for departures, the airport's capacity stands at 600 passenger per hour (p/h) with a phase 2 upgrade to 1200 p/h in 2015, with phase 3 reaching 2000 p/h in 2028. Five years ago, the government began to seriously encourage the private sector to invest in airports, under the BOT system. Investors were offered further incentives in the form of lucrative concessions for other projects in the areas served by the airports. The first BOT airport in Egypt started operations 18 months ago in Marsa Alam. But this time, aviation authorities conducted tougher negotiations with the lease-bidders. "We got the contract under hard conditions and terms comparing to Egypt's first BOT airport," explained Hamdi Abdel Azeem, ICA manager. Under the contract, ICA was awarded a total area of 64 square kilometres for the project. Since the airport is sitting on 14 square kilometres, a number of projects are currently being studied for implementation within the airport perimeters. Among these projects, a FAA-certified flying school, a tax-free zone, and an agricultural area for organic products takes up 16 square kilometers, while an environmentally friendly industrial park is spread over another 25 square kilometres. "We gave priority to operating the airport, so we are now busy negotiating to provide all the services and supplies required," explained Abdel- Azeem. EgyptAir Ground Services won the first contract to provide ground services to aircraft flying in and out of Al-Alamein airport. That will not be an easy job, said Abdel Rahman El-Sherif, head of EgyptAir Ground Services Company. The limited number of aircraft coming into the new airport makes it difficult for services companies to do business efficiently. "We have two choices and both are costly -- either to allocate equipment at the airport to serve one or two flights weekly or to move equipment from nearby airports. Since we have equipment in Borg El- Arab airport and El- Nozha airport, we opted for the second choice," he explained. "Bringing more flights to the airport would help reduce the costs." For weeks following its opening, the airport relied on temporary deals to obtain its services. "Were there to be any emergency landings or takeoffs, the airport would have been in trouble," pointed out El-Sherif. El-Sherif also lamented the lack of services required to facilitate work at the airport. "There are no places prepared to accommodate the staff of technicians and engineers. There is no fuel supply for the equipment and no shelters or hangars to store the equipment," he said. The German carrier Lufthansa has expressed its interest in Al-Alamein airport as well. It recently revealed plans to invest in the cargo village project with a cold storage facility. Lufthansa is planning to allocate an estimated $40 million for the project, which would greatly enhance the airport's operations. "We have an eye on cargo business in the Middle East, encouraged by the fact that the whole Middle East has only two cargo centres, in Sharjah and Dubai," explained Abdel Azeem. "We plan to establish a cargo hub with the help of Lufthansa on an area of nine square kilometres at Al-Alamein airport, which enjoys "easy access to Africa, the Middle East and Europe -- we are two hours only from European airports." Abdel Azeem explained that the cargo village will include the storage, refrigeration, warehousing and other necessary facilities to potentially become the largest cargo facility in the Middle East. According to Abdel-Azeem, the North Coast's Movenpick Hotel -- owned by one of the company's subsidiaries -- has entered into a six- month contract with a British operator to operate a weekly flight from UK over the summer season. The first flight arrived from Gatwick airport in London on 21 March, bringing in 148 tourists. "An Italian operator started a weekly flight from Italy this week. Another contract is almost on the way due to be effective starting 15 July to operate weekly flights from Spain," added Abdel Azeem. The BOT deal raised some questions as to why the government had scrapped plans to develop the region's main airport in Marsa Matrouh in favour of building a new airport with private investment. "The government is keen not to waste huge money for no returns," Ibrahim Mannaa', head of the Holding Company for Airports, explained to Al-Ahram Weekly. "Borg El-Arab airport in Alexandria, for example, is being upgraded at present at $55 million to serve half a million passengers every year, while Sharm El-Sheikh airport is being upgraded as well at $60 million to host four and half million passengers. So it is important to estimate the return value before allocating a fixed budget to develop any airport," he explained. According to Mannaa', the World Bank provided $400,000 to profile each of Egypt's international and domestic airports. "The study investigates the current air transport movement at each area of the country and whether it needs a new airport or to develop the existing ones. This would help us direct governmental and private investments," he added. Accordingly, the Marsa Matrouh airport is to be upgraded to better serve passengers, particularly tourists visiting Siwa Oasis, 300 kilometres southwest of the city. "The fact that Marsa Matrouh's airport is basically a military airport does not give us many alternatives to expand its work. At present it has a limited operation as a domestic airport, receiving two flights weekly during the summer. Thus we are working in cooperation with the armed forces and civil authorities to operate it as a limited international airport," Mannaa' explained.
