Alexandria's aging airport will be retired in favour of modernised facilities in Borg Al-Arab. Amirah Ibrahim reports Egypt's second largest city, the Mediterranean port of Alexandria, is set to have a state-of-the-art international airport within three years. The airport in Borg Al- Arab, 40 kilometres southwest of Alexandra, will be upgraded with Japanese assistance and replace the Al-Nozha facilities as Alexandria's main airport. The project will add a new gateway to upgrade the airport's passenger and cargo handling capacity in response to growing demand, and in order to improve convenience and safety. Last week, Japanese Ambassador to Egypt Kunihiko Makita and Egypt's Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Abul-Naga signed an exchange of notes on the Japanese soft loan to the Borg Al- Arab International Airport Modernisation project. Egyptian aviation officials also signed two memorandums of understanding concerning financial and technical aspects with officials of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). The Japanese government's soft loan to the Borg Al-Arab airport modernisation project is worth around LE309 million. At an interest rate of 1.5 per cent, the loan will receive a seven-year grace period and is payable over a 25-year period. Japanese soft loans to Egypt had been suspended in 1991, but were resumed in 2002. Since then, some LE5.25 billion in loans from Japan have been extended to Egypt, according to Hirushi Haruta, the resident executive director for Africa at JBIC. This figure includes funding for two projects in the electricity sector and the Social Fund for Development. Haruta mentioned that the bank also provided the equivalent of $3.6 billion as Official Development Assistance (ODA) loans. The sum, which includes the funding for the airport, also targeted other areas such as telecommunication, water supply and sewage. The Borg Al-Arab project is the first ODA loan from JBIC to support the airport sector in Egypt. Abul-Naga, expressing his appreciation to Japan's government for relaunching its assistance programme even as it suspended its programmes in other African countries, said "the Japanese assistance programme to Egypt harmonises with Egypt's development priorities and reflects on the positive response by the Japanese government to our development requirements in many fields." The Borg Al-Arab airport project involves the construction of a terminal with expanded capacity to handle a million passengers and 4,000 tonnes of cargo per year, as well as improvements in related facilities at the Borg Al-Arab international airport. "The loan will be used for building and improving these facilities as well as the consulting service, which covers detailed design, bidding assistance, monitoring and supervision during implementation," stated Ibrahim Manna, head of the Holding Company for Airports. Located around 40 kilometres southwest of Alexandria, Borg Al-Arab airport had been inaugurated in 1998 mainly to serve passengers from the Delta and to handle part of the growing cargo business that threatened to overwhelm Cairo Airport's capacities at the time. Nevertheless, it remained a secondary airport for Alexandria, even as the main airport, Al-Nozha airport, suffered from deteriorating services and navigation difficulties. "For local development priorities in Egypt, it is essential to accelerate the improvement of the transportation infrastructure. In the area of civil aviation, this airport promises to provide the local population as well as foreign tourist visitors and businessmen with a first-class facility in terms of safety, convenience and the volume of passengers and cargoes it is designed to deal with," Manna stated. The site of the project is also an area where various industries, such as petrochemicals, metal refining, agriculture and tourism, have been expanding. Given these developments, the number of air passengers visiting Alexandria and its vicinity is projected to increase from 440,000 in 2002 to one million by 2014. Demand for air cargo is also expected to rise from 2,000 tonnes at present to 4,000 tonnes as economic activities expand. Aviation Minister Ahmed Shafiq disclosed that the new modernised Borg Al- Arab airport when completed will replace Al-Nozha. "This will come into effect within five years as planned. But we have adopted a number of procedures that will help cut the period to three years only." Shafiq added that the aviation authorities will invite contractors for international bidding within two months to construct the new terminal and facilities. He added that no decision had been made yet whether to shut down the old airport or allocate it for limited operation. "Unfortunately, the airport can not be modernised or expanded to cope with aviation ambitious plans to develop its facilities in Alexandria and to serve tourism plans in Egypt's Mediterranean area," commented Shafiq. Alexandria's Al-Nozha airport suffers from building violations in the area, which caused the airport to lose two of its navigation passages, in turn disqualifying the airport from accepting wide-body aircraft. Two years ago, Cairo's Imbaba Airport, used for aviation training, was shut down due to buildings illegally constructed dangerously close to the airfield, making it difficult for safe navigation. But it was only when Cairo Airport, the country's main gateway was threatened by the same destiny due to the relentless vertical and horizontal expansion of the suburbs of Heliopolis and Nasr City that the government moved to confront the problem. Last year, the government adjusted civil aviation laws to improve safety standards near Egyptian airports and provide vital support for the sector's ambitious development plans. The amendment gave aviation authorities the jurisdiction to issue licences for either new buildings or the addition of floors to previously existing buildings within the vicinity of airports. The amendment to the law also authorised aviation bodies to demolish buildings that violate zoning laws, penalising owners, contractors and architects of the violating buildings with a minimum of one year in prison or a fine of no less than LE10,000. Shafiq warned he would no longer tolerate such violations, which could undo the country's hard work in seeking to attract foreign investments in civil aviation.
