CAIRO: The M.A. Kharafi Group of Kuwait, the developer, financier and concessionaire of the Marsa Alam International Airport, the international gateway airport to Egypt's South Red Sea Marsa Alam Coast, has announced that they are undertaking a major expansion of the airport that will double the terminal size, increase the runway length to handle larger aircraft and increase the taxiway and ramp areas to significantly increase aircraft parking space. The M.A. Kharafi Group is a large Kuwaiti multi-national company that has been doing business in Egypt for over 50 years and has presently in excess of $2.5 billion of investment in the country. James Pringle, chief executive director for the Group's Marsa Alam Area Developments, announced the airport expansion program yesterday, noting that "this expansion was originally envisioned in our business plan to be undertaken in 2011. Owing to the rapid growth of resort development at Port Ghalib and the wider Marsa Alam area, airport traffic from Europe has grown far faster than envisioned for this green-field site airport, necessitating a major expansion program well ahead of plan. Pringle noted that "when the Kharafi Group won the airport BOT/concession competition in1998 there were about 800 hotel rooms in the area served by the planned airport. When we opened the airport in November 2001 the room count had grown to about 2,500 rooms. At present there are over 7,000 rooms in the airport service area and another 5,000 rooms are under development and construction. If ever there was a clear case of a major infrastructure facility stimulating local economic growth, the creation of a new tourism destination and new jobs, the Marsa Alam International Airport is such a case. The growth in hotels, rooms and safari diving boats based at the Group's Port Ghalib International Marina, only five minutes from the MAI Airport, has put the Marsa Alam Coast of Egypt clearly on the global tourism map as well as created over 25,000 jobs in an area that had experienced high rates of unemployment in recent years. Pringle further explained that "all of this development means that traffic demand on Marsa Alam International Airport has been on a steep upward rise since the airport opened in late 2001. By the end of 2002 our passenger traffic was at the 145,000 mark; all European. By the end of 2005 this had grown to 435,000 passengers handled and in 2006 we are on track to achieving 480,000. The challenge we face as an airport is that much of this traffic is centered on the weekends when European holidays commence and end. MAI's present planned operating capacity is to handle about 600 passengers per hour although over 1,000 per hour has safely, securely and consistently been achieved during peak hours on the airport's busiest days. With the expansion the airport will be able to handle nearly 2,000 passengers per hour plus it will have expanded food, beverage and shopping facilities that will keep Marsa Alam up to solid international standards for passenger comfort, service and entertainment. "Our expansion program will also add runway length, allowing us to handle the larger aircraft that we see coming and increase the number of aircraft parking stands from 5 to 10 in order to meet a growing demand from airlines and private aircraft owners for longer term parking facilities added Pringle. Pringle concluded that "when Mr. Nasser Al-Kharafi first came to Marsa Alam to inspect the proposed airport site, all he saw was a flat coastal plain with the Red Sea on one side and the Eastern Desert on the other and not much else whatsoever. It took a grand vision and courage to see how this could all develop into an international tourism destination and a successful airport in only a few years. The fact that we are now expanding this airport by 200 percent is a testimony to that vision and to his confidence in Egyptian tourism and in the appeal of the Marsa Alam area. The Marsa Alam International Airport expansion program is being managed by EMAK Marsa Alam for Management and Operation of Airports, a wholly owned subsidiary of the M.A. Kharafi Group. The expansion is expected to be completed by 4th quarter 2007. Noozz
