Bahrain International Airport (BIA) will create a new private aircraft terminal by renovating the original Civil Aviation Affairs (CAA) building, once the kingdom’s main airport terminal, Bahrain Airport Company (BAC) announced at this year's Bahrain International Airshow, November 14-16.

New locations for services are becoming the focus of business aviation activity in the Middle East region, and Bahrain is anxious not to be left behind. BAC signed an agreement with the local Gulf Engineering House for the renovation work.

“The project is part of the Ministry’s plan to offer services to private jet owners through BIA, especially in light of the sector’s impressive growth rate in the Middle East,” said Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications and Gulf Air Group Holding chairman Kamal Mohammed. “It is also part of a comprehensive strategy to enhance the infrastructure of BIA and one of the main components of the airport modernization program, which is expected to be finished by [the third quarter of] 2019.”

Mohammed Juman, managing director of Bahrain’s MENA Aerospace, told AIN that only one FBO now exists at the airport—the Aventura Air Center, run by a U.S. company—and said the facility is now 20 years old.

 Only a handful of private and business jets are believed to be based in Bahrain. An Embraer official at BIAS told AIN that the company has one Legacy based in the kingdom.

The first London-Delhi service, operated by a Handley Page H.P.42, of which eight were built, landed in Bahrain in 1932, establishing the island as the Gulf’s first aviation hub.