Bucharest Airports to start construction of new terminal in 2022

The works are expected to begin in 2022 and will take three years to complete, CNAB officials said in a press release on Wednesday. The projected investment does not include the money that will be paid for expropriations.

The new terminal at the Henri Coanda airport will have 25 gates and 56 parking spaces.

CNAB operates Bucharest's main airport Henri Coanda and a smaller airport, Aurel Vlaicu. Combined traffic at the two airports rose 20.5% year-on-year to 5.92 million passengers in the first half of 2017. The combined number of take-offs and landings at the two airports rose 9.3% on the year, reaching 61,800 in the first half of 2017.

A total of 41 airlines operated from the Henri Coanda airport during the period January-June. The airport handled 5.91 million passengers and registered 55,600 aircraft movements in the six months through June.

Encouraged by the strong results in the first half of the year, CNAB said it expects the two airports to handle a total of 12 million passengers in 2017.

Combined traffic at the two international airports rose 18.3% year-on-year to 10.99 million passengers in 2016, the highest number on record since 2010, when the separate operators of the two airports merged to form CNAB.

($=0.838 euro)