Construction of a modern Terminal III at the Abeid Amani Karume International Airport (AAKIA) has been completed and handed over to the Zanzibar Airports Authority (ZAA) on Wednesday. Mr. Amour Hamil Bakar Permanent Secretary (PS), Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport handed over documents to the ZAA acting Director General, Mr. Seif Abadlla Juma.
The PS expressed his happiness to have the new stateof-the-art terminal III with the capacity of handling 1,6 million travelers annually, noting that it is a huge boost to tourism and economic growth of the isles as it strives to improve livelihood of its people. Civil Engineer, Bilali Zhao Xiang Yang from the China's Beijing Construction Engineering Group (BCEG) said they are grateful to complete the project that has been implemented for more than a decade since October 2009.
The $128,75m (about 298bn/-) development on an areas measuring 25,000 square metres, includes a connection to passenger boarding bridge, baggage handling system and security checkpoint with modern system (x-ray machine, EDS STD.3, and IT systems). "You have to maintain the airport and generate income, so that we can pay back the loan and get profit," the PS said at the handing over ceremony.
On her part, the Minister for Infrastructure, Communications and Transport, Ms. Rahma Kassim Ali directed the ZAA to improve services in order attract more airlines to use the airport at the new terminal. ZAA DG promised to improve services at the airport which would also see increase in revenue. He said more airlines have shown interest to have flights to Zanzibar, currently having 32 airlines to the airport, which makes about 70bn/- annually.