Plans to expand Bahrain International Airport (BIA) are on track, it has been confirmed.

The Bahrain Airport Company (BAC) told our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News (GDN) that none of the plans had been changed or cancelled.

The company was reacting to reports that it had cancelled plans to build two new passenger terminals.

'Plans for the expansion of the airport have not been changed, nor have any parts of the plans cancelled,' said a spokesman.

'We will be making an announcement on our plans in due course.'

A report in MEED said earlier this week that after plans to build two new terminals had been cancelled, the BIA was moving ahead with plans to upgrade the existing terminal.

They reported a BAC official as having said their current development plans were for an expansion of the existing terminal only and that the two new terminals would remain part of a long-term development plan of the airport.

The report said the BAC would start prequalifying contractors to bid for a contract that covers the upgrade of the existing terminal in July.

BAC chief executive Gordon Dewar had earlier told the GDN, when global airports had suffered due to economic crisis, that Bahrain airport had been in a positive situation.

He said the BIA was in a position for further growth this year and even expected to be profitable.

Dewar said all of the money would go into further developing the airport both in the short and longer terms.

He said at some time in the future they would have to look at a second runway and at increasing the number of direct docking areas for passengers.

Dewar said while there was no lack of runway space at the moment, there was lack of airspace because of the amount of traffic from adjacent airports in other countries in the region.

He said running an airport involved being ahead of the growth curve in customers and they expected to see customer growth in the future.-TradeArabia News Service