(Oct 15): Iran’s government is planning on a $2.8 billion expansion of Tehran’s main international airport to quadruple passenger capacity, the head of the local consulting company on the proposal said.

“The project at hand is for a new terminal with the capacity to handle 20 million” additional travelers, Mohammad Kiaie, chairman and chief executive officer of Tehran-based Rah Shahr International Group, said in a phone interview from London yesterday.

Imam Khomeini International Airport, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of the Iranian capital, has capacity to serve 6 million air travelers a year. Once the expansion is complete, possibly in five years, the existing terminal will be used for domestic flights, Kiaie said.

Companies from France, China and Malaysia have expressed an interest in taking part in the project, Kiaie said. They include Paris-based Bouygues SA and Aeroports de Paris’s ADPI unit, which are in talks with Iranian officials, he said. A tender for the project could take place as soon as two months from now, he said.

International sanctions against Iran, which block purchases from suppliers such as Chicago-based planemaker Boeing Co. and Toulouse, France-based competitor Airbus Group NV, have hampered Iranian authorities’ ambition to modernize the country’s foreign-built fleet of jetliners. Restrictions on purchases of aircraft and components have forced officials in past years to buy used planes and obtain spare parts on the secondary market, putting safety standards at risk.

A Bouygues spokesman declined immediately to comment. A spokeswoman at Paris-based ADP wasn’t immediately available to comment.

Aircraft Need

Iran needs 300 passenger aircraft while it only has half that number in operation, Fars news agency cited Alireza Jahangirian, the head of the country’s civil aviation authority, as saying yesterday.

The government aims to ultimately position Iran as the leading hub for cargo transportation and the second in passenger transportation in the Middle East, Kiaie said. Iran, which seeks eventually to establish a free-trade zone at Khomeini airport, could tap into increasing traffic that goes through Dubai.

Plans are for the new airport terminal to be built in five years, though an option has been included for the expansion to take place in two phases, with the first increasing handling capacity by 12 million, Kiaie said. Construction could take longer depending on whether economic sanctions against the country will be eased, he said.