Two Omani airports, Muscat Seeb and Salalah, have been privatised, with management being taken over by a consortium led by UKairport group BAA. An investment of $13 million has been made by BAA to set up the new company to manage the airports, and the consortium will also need some $187 million to upgrade the airports. Star Alliance has broken ground on a dedicated concourse at Miami International Airport. This is the first of its kind in North America and one of several airport projects that the alliance is undertaking across its network. It is due to open in 2005. A third international airport is to be built in Myanmar following government approval. The airport, designated Hanthawaddy International, will be located at Bago, 90km (56 miles) north of Yangon. Construction should begin later this year, with the airport due to open in early 2007. Brussels South Charleroi saw its annual traffic double to 770,000 passengers last year, after becoming the continental hub of Ryanair. The Irish low-cost airline carried 93% of the passengers using the airport last year, with the remaining 7% flying with charter airlines. Two runway projects at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport have received US Federal Aviation Administration approval - a new 2,440m (8,000ft) north/south runway and a 619m extension of an east-west runway to 3,660m. The move will provide almost a 30% increase in operations during the next 10 years and assist it in its quest to handle non-stop flights to Asia. The $230 million project is due to be finished by 2005.
Source: Flight International
