Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum
LITIA MATHEWSELL
NADI
Upgrade works to the Nadi International Airport is expected to commence once the Airports Fiji Limited board identifies a preferred contractor.
These comments were made by the Attorney-General and Minister for Tourism, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum yesterday while speaking at the Fijian Tourism Expo.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said the upgrade would include an expansion to both the departure and arrival areas.
He confirmed plans have already been drawn up for the airport and the upgrades would likely be taken care of by a mix of foreign and local contractors.
“The scale of the work means there is not, perhaps, necessarily enough local skill sets available here to do the job,” he said.
“So there may be a combination of foreign and local but I don’t want to pre-empt the outcome of it, but that is the stage we are at.”
An excess of over $17 million is being invested in this project to cater for more numbers and provide more luxury and facilities.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said essentially the upgrade involves the expansion of the departure area, the lifting up of the roof for more space and more light.
“At the moment, it feels very congested and claustrophobic, actually,” he said.
“It is a physical extension of the departure area- once you go through immigration and go through the stores, that is all going to change.
“We want people to spend more time at the airport. Modern day operations at airports has more emphasis in terms of income from the concessions and the spend at the airport, as opposed to gaining your income through aircraft landing fees.”
litiam@fijisun.com.fj