Bahrain International Airport will soon be self-sufficient and should be able to fund its own expansion, including the addition of a second runway, without government money, it has emerged.

Huge volumes of air traffic across the region could soon force authorities to build a second runway at the airport sometime in the future, said Bahrain Airport Company chief executive Gordon Dewar. He said that although there was enough runway space at the airport, the large number of flights from adjacent countries meant there was a lack of airspace.

The airport, which officials say is short of at least 1,500 parking spaces, will soon have multi-level lots for vehicles, it was also revealed.

There have been some changes in the parking facilities at the airport and the endeavour was to offer high-value services to users, said Gordon Dewar.

'We will still expand the parking facilities at the airport horizontally and create several areas, but will ultimately have to go vertical in the near future,' Dewar said during a media luncheon at the Mšvenpick Hotel, Muharraq.

'The plan is to start building multi-level parking lots in 2012.' He defended the recent increase in parking fees from 200 fils to 400 fils, which he said was necessary to prevent 'misuse and overuse'.

'There are people who park at the airport for days and weeks on end at very low rates and this prevents legitimate users from making full use of the facilities,' said Dewar.

'There are still other areas where people can park at the old rate and we encourage that.

'Soon, we shall have shuttle services from other parking areas to the main building as well, to make it easy for users.'

Dewar said the BAC would be making major announcements about the future of the airport soon, which would outline where they saw the business was going.-TradeArabia News Service