The Omani Government has chosen a consortium led by the UK airport operator BAA to develop and manage Muscat's Seeb International Airport and Salalah Airport in the south of the country. The consortium, which also includes the Omani Government, Suhail Bahwan Group and ABB Equity Ventures, will be granted a 25-year concession from January. Italy's Società Esercizi Aeroportuali (SEA) is being courted by Brazilian investors to join the Brasilinvest project bidding for the management of Veiracopas airport, near Campinas. Veiracopas is currently a cargo airport, but Brasilinvest's plan aims to establish a consortium with an initial capital of $250 million to create a second international passenger hub to compete with Sïo Paulo Guarulhos International. A US Federal Aviation Administration plan to reorganise higher level airspace at Chicago O'Hare airport could become effective as early as October. The plan will stack aircraft under terminal area control vertically with 1,000ft (300m) of separation as they get within 100km (60 miles) of the airport. The streams of approaching aircraft would be separated by speed, allowing more efficient use of the airport's runways. The plan will also allow more direct approaches to the region's two other main commercial airports, Chicago Midway and Milwaukee Mitchell. The FAA estimates the project will save about $68 million a year. Eurocontrol has released its plan for a new approach path for Paris Orly, which is designed to allow extra movements into the airport. Eurocontrol's plan envisages shifting Orly's approach path from north to south, freeing up an extra northwest entry point for Paris Charles de Gaulle. The pan-European organisation was asked by the French aviation authority, the DGAC, to come up with recommendations, which will only create "imperceptible ground noise". No extra aircraft will land at Orly as a result of any changes as the airport is already slot-constrained at 250,000 movements per year.
Source: Flight International
