Luxembourg, 19/11/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Aer Rianta signed an agreement last week for a loan of 115 million EUR, which will help to pay for the extension of Cork airport, where Aer Rianta is currently building a new terminal and considerable additional infrastructure. Work on Cork airport started last July, and the new terminal is due to be finished in 2005: it will initially welcome three million passengers a year, within an architecturally attractive structure, and its capacity can be extended to five million in the long term, depending on demand. Cork airport has seen a sharp upturn in traffic over the last years, and the number of passengers has grown by 16% since the beginning of this year.