New Zealand based Airways International to open Middle East office

New Zealand-based Airways International, a leading commercial air navigation service provider, is to open an office in Dubai before the end of this year to oversee its growing Middle East business interests, which include an airport expansion project of strategic importance in the Gulf region.

The company announced on the final day of the Airport Build & Supply Exhibition in Dubai today that it is to conduct an expansion study for Iran's Qeshm International Airport, on an island in the Straits of Hormuz.

The expansion, which would increase the airport's capacity to more than half a million passengers each year, is part of an ambitious plan by the Iranian government to attract foreign investment and facilitate the flow of know-how into the Qeshm Island free zone.

The airport could also play a key contingency role as a temporary base for regional airlines when their hub airports are out of use. "Strategically located in the Straits of Hormoz, in close proximity to Iran, the Gulf  countries and Central Asia, Qeshm Island has a vast potential for economic  growth, and as new people and business come to the island, the airport's future is bright," said Mike Tournier, Marketing Manager, Airways International.

"Qeshm is not trying to compete with the regional airport hubs, but to supplement them. It can act as the ultimate solution in contingency situations when Gulf-owned airlines cannot land in their own airports."

While the company has also been contracted for a telecommunications study of Qeshm, plans are under way to attract leisure travellers, with KPMG, the gobal providers of financial advisory, assurance and legal services, currently conducting a master plan on how to boost tourism on the island. 

Confirming the opening of Airways International's first Middle East office in Dubai later this year, Tournier added: "Our turnover will reach $1.5 million in 2003, and we are expecting this figure to triple in the next 18 months."