BY OUR BUSINESS BUREAU
SHARJAH International Airport plans to raise $500 millions (Dhs1.84 billion) in debt to expand its current terminal or develop a new facility and runway due to the growth of Air Arabia, the airport's director said on Sunday.
We are revising the expansion as our current plans are already not sufficient due to the raising passenger traffic brought by Air Arabia, Ghanem Al Hajri, director general of department of civil aviation and Sharjah Airport Authority, told Dow Jones.
Air transport is booming amongst the Middle East's Arab Gulf states as surging oil revenues spur an economic boom across the region.
Passenger traffic within the six Arab nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council The UAE, Saudi Arabia , Kuwait , Qatar , Bahrain and Oman rose 12.8 per cent to more than 109 million |
passengers in 2006, well above the international average of 4.9 per cent, according to the Arab Air Carrier Organization.
For our expansion planes we will need to raise $500 million. We are considering whether to raise this money through bank loans or a sukuk, Al Hajri said. Sharjah Airport , the third largest in the UAE after Dubai and Abu Dhabi , has benefited from being a low-cost carrier hub serving migrants workers coming into the country from the subcontinent.
We are looking at the possibility of a second terminal and a second runway. There is a lot of pressure on everyone due to the increase in Air Arabia, Al Hajri said. |