Baghdad: Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani sponsored a signing ceremony for awarding the contract to the winning consortium responsible for the rehabilitation and development of Baghdad International Airport. The CAAP Consortium, led by Corporaci³n Am©rica Airports, won the tender to develop, expand, and operate the airport.

According to National Iraqi News Agency, the project results from two years of advisory work by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group. The IFC acted as the government’s transaction advisor, overseeing the preparation of tender documents, qualifying international bidders, and drafting the public-private partnership (PPP) contract for the airport’s development and operation.

The development plan includes constructing a new passenger terminal with an initial capacity of 9 million passengers annually, which will later expand to 15 million. It also involves rehabilitating runways, installing modern passenger boarding bridges, and building new headquarters for the Civil Aviation Authority and a VIP terminal. Additionally, the project will feature a modern parking facility and upgrading all service systems to meet international airport standards.

The initiative will also emphasize training current Iraqi staff and is expected to create about 1,000 new jobs for every additional one million passengers as capacity expands. The contract was signed on behalf of Iraq by the Director General of the Contracts and Licensing Department at the Ministry of Transport, and on behalf of the investor by the Consortium’s Director of Business Development for the Middle East region.