With Iran rapidly becoming the hub of airline routes across the Middle East, Tippetts-Abbott-McCarthy-Stratton of New York and Abdol Aziz Farmanfarmaian and associates of Tehran have joined together to develop a major airport facility for the nation comparable to the largest in the world. It is to be located 35 km south-west of Tehran on 12,000 hectares of land between two major freeways which, along with the future high-speed rapid transit link, will provide direct access from the capital. In the initial stage, one domestic and one international module totalling 36 gates will be constructed. By the year 2000, the series of five terminal modules and four runways in dual parallel configuration, with just over 100 loading/parking positions, will be capable of handling and annual traffic load of 12 million international passengers, 14,900,000 domestic passengers and 620,000 metric tonnes of cargo.