The minister assigned the new CEO to take action for improving the company’s structure, executive management and operational processes as per international standards.
Akhoundi thanked Koroush Fattahi who served as the caretaker of IKIA Airport City Company, IRNA reported on Sunday.
IKIA is the main international airport of Iran, located 30 kilometers southwest of the city of Tehran. Along with Mehrabad International Airport, it is one of the two major commercial airports serving Tehran and the busiest international air passenger gateway to Iran. It is said to be the only profit-making airport in Iran, according to Financial Tribune.
The project to develop the area surrounding IKIA to create an airport city has been on the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development’s agenda for the past couple of years.
Accordingly, the government-owned IKIA Airport City Company was established in 2015 to manage the project’s execution and supervise investment activities. Through this entity, the government negotiated a joint-venture with French construction firm Bouygues and French airports operator Aeroports de Paris to build a new passenger terminal in a $2.8 billion deal that would increase airport capacity to 20 million passengers per annum in the first phase.
Companies from South Korea and the Netherlands have also been engaged to offer consultancy on airport city development.
According to a master plan devised by Netherlands Airport Consultants for IKIA Airport City Company, the airport’s passenger capacity is to increase to 30 million per year within the next five years from the current 7 million.
The master plan for the IKIA Airport City includes creating a 1,500-hectare free trade zone and a 2,500-hectare special economic zone in a 13,700-hectare area surrounding IKIA.
The plan also aims to establish 25 commercial facilities encompassing a wide range of commercial activities, including manufacturing, telecommunications and logistics, hotels, retail outlets, entertainment complexes and exhibition centers, in a 400-hectare area in the vicinity of the airport.
Alongside the airport city project, the simultaneous completion of four development phases of IKIA is underway to increase annual passenger capacity to 90 million.
IKIA registered a traffic growth rate of 11.5% in 2017, 3% higher than the global average.
According to Fattahi, IKIA ranks third in the Middle East and ninth in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of airport traffic growth.