A Turkish construction company will start building Sudan's biggest airport early next year, according to the firm's chairman.

"We will lay the foundation for the Khartoum International Airport in the first quarter of 2019 and complete it in less than 36 months," Selim Bora, the chairman of construction firm Summa, said.

Bora told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the three-phase project is worth $1.15 billion. "First we will build a terminal with a 6 million-person [annual] capacity along with all infrastructure services, runways and airport aprons," he said. Bora added the airport's annual capacity will reach 9 million in the second phase and 12 million in the third phase.

The project, developed on the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model, is currently in the design phase, he said.

Saying that Sudan has the largest surface area in Africa, Bora added the airport will also serve other countries in the region.

"Currently airports in Cairo and Addis Ababa are the most important and effective ones on the continent," he noted.

Meanwhile, Turkish contractors have achieved great success in Africa by building railways, highways, ports, bridges and tunnels, and completing projects amounting to $15 billion over the past four years, according to data from the Turkish Contractors Association (TMB). The companies undertook 17 projects worth $1.7 billion in Africa in the first nine months of this year.

Bora said he hoped the air passenger traffic in those airports will shift to Khartoum International Airport, which enjoys geographical advantages.

He said Summa entered the African market in 2007 by doing several projects in Libya and then in Equatorial Guinea.

The company has continued African projects in such countries as Senegal, Rwanda, Congo, Niger, Sudan and Benin, he added. He said the renovation of an airport and construction of a five-star hotel in Niger will be completed in July 2019. Summa signed the deal with Sudan's Finance Ministry to build the new Khartoum airport in March of this year.