The Bahrain Airport Company (BAC) has announced plans to further expand Bahrain International Airport (BIA) in the coming year.

The project will include expansions to the main passenger terminal building and the construction of a major service center, a statement from the company said.

Opened in 1994, Bahrain International Airport currently serves a maximum of 9 million passengers per year.

Under the current plan, the airport's capacity would expand to 13.5 million passengers per year.

Mohamed Yousif Al-Binfalah, Chief Executive of BAC, said: “One of the purposes of this project is to sustain the competitive advantage that BIA has in the region in terms of the time it takes the passenger to go through all the checks.”