Qatar's Prime Minister to launch US$5.5 billion Airport Project

The Prime Minister of Qatar, His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Thani, will attend the official groundbreaking ceremony, Tuesday, of the New Doha International Airport (NDIA) in Qatar.

His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Thani will lay the foundation stone to mark the start of the $5.5bn construction work on the 1,700-hectare site.

Guests at the event will include senior government officials, members of the Cabinet and a host of local and foreign dignitaries.

The NDIA is scheduled to open in 2009 at a cost of $2.5bn in the first phase and will be capable of handling 12 million passengers a year. Once fully developed in 2015 at a cost of $5.5bn, the airport is expected to handle up to 50 million passengers.

It will also be the world’s first airport to be designed and built specifically for Airbus’s new A380-800 double-decker ‘super jumbo’ – the largest passenger aircraft ever built. The A380 will be capable of carrying more than 550 passengers, with Qatar Airways a launch customer taking delivery of the first of its four A380s in 2009, the year the new airport opens.

The New Doha International Airport will be managed and operated by Qatar Airways.

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