Minister of Civil Aviation Abdul Aziz Fadel has inaugurated new development projects at Borg El-Arab Airport near Alexandria to boost its annual absorptive capacity and streamline travel for passengers, according to an official statement from the ministry. The developments include three new jet bridges, bringing the airport total to seven, a lounge for transit passengers and a luggage store at the ground floor. Japan's ambassador in Egypt, Toshiro Suzuki, accompanied Fadel in the inauguration ceremony on 25 November along with Alexandria Governor Tarek El-Mahdy. Borg El-Arab Airport was established over an 18 square kilometre area at a cost of EGP 628m, with funding from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The airport's current annual capacity is 2.1 million passengers. JICA representatives have submitted to the minister plans to construct a new terminal at the airport over an area of 36,000 square metres to accommodate 4 million passengers annually at a cost of EGP 1.2bn. The new structure includes 20 airplane parking spots, 40 check-in counters and 16 customs counters. The construction phase of this new building is expected to begin in 2014 and be complete by early 2016, and will be reserved for low-cost airlines. After its inauguration, the total capacity of Borg El-Arab will stand at more than 5 million passengers annually. Fadel was quoted in the statement as saying that the government expected air traffic to grow from 27 million passengers in 2011 to 55 million in 2020.
