These days, not many people would put air travel at the top of their list of fun things to do. Airports, especially, can be a nightmare, moving from desk to desk, past this control, that control, losing the kids, looking for duty free, trying to buy a last-minute gift, looking for the toilets, grabbing a cardboard cup of coffee and a plastic sandwich, not knowing where the departure gate is, discovering that the flight is delayed, has not yet landed, has not even left yet, before finally making it on the plane.
No wonder that around the world there is major investment in improving passenger movement through airports. After all, there is lot of money to be made. Air terminals can compete with shopping malls as revenue earners, given the size of what is a captive, not to mention often-bored, audience. And there is the money too to be made from increased efficiency.
Investment in new information technologies worldwide such as automated check-in, wireless connectivity and even automated passport control promise to make the experience for the four billion passengers traveling through airports each year faster, safer and less stressful. It would be difficult to say that Saudi Arabia is up alongside world leaders in upgrading its airport facilities. Indeed, industry leaders say the pace of progress is slow. Nonetheless, development of some of these aspects is being planned across the Kingdom. Saudi airports’ investment in IT is increasing both as a percentage of revenues and in real terms.
The airports across the Kingdom, especially the three major international ones, present a picture of an airport industry adapting to the challenges posed by significant traffic growth. Those challenges include the arrival of the mega Airbus 380, which can carry up to 800 passengers and of low-cost carriers. Sharjah-based Air Arabia already flies to Saudi Arabia; NAS announced in Dubai recently that it is planning to set up the Kingdom’s first private low-cost airline and Kuwait’s budget airline Jazeera plans to fly in.
Given that global passenger traffic is forecast to almost double by 2020 to 7.4 billion, it is not surprising that airports are looking for IT solutions to play a bigger part in their operations. As the industry becomes increasingly competitive, airports across the world have to attract more airlines, more passengers and provide better facilities at cheaper costs, without sacrificing efficiency or safety. Saudi airports will be no exception. Already Dhahran’s King Fahd International Airport effectively competes with the Bahrain international airport.
A major issue facing airports here will be terminal congestion as a result of the anticipated doubling of passenger numbers over the next 20 years. Airline-neutral check-in kiosks are seen as part of the answer. “But this seems to be a far cry in this part of the world. Maybe we’ll have to wait for a long time as things appear at the moment,” a travel industry leader remarked.
To complement the speeding up of the check-in process, airports are increasingly providing passengers with alternative ways to use their time, including the provision of wireless Internet capabilities, allowing travelers to stay connected while they wait for their flights. “This, again, is nowhere in sight here,” he added.
Other technologies being considered by airports are mobile phone applications for both remote check-in and m-commerce, which allow travelers to purchase goods and services within the airport terminals. To date, these have only been implemented in around five percent of airports in the world, and the Kingdom is not included. However, within two years as mobile connectivity becomes pervasive, this facility is likely to be provided in the region.
As the needs of airlines and their support operations grow, airports are increasingly deploying a single airport-wide communication network to reduce the cost and complexity of existing systems and provide a platform for new services, such as VoIP and Wi-Fi. Campus Area Networks (CANs), as they are known, are already deployed at 38 percent of airports and this figure will double over the next two years as the benefits and operational efficiencies become more widely accepted. “Whether the Kingdom’s airports will figure among them is anybody’s guess,” commented the travel industry leader.
This is because, he added, getting the balance right between tight security and streamlined passenger procedures is a challenge for most airports. Biometrics are seen as the most positive development to achieve this, but with issues such as reliability, privacy and global technical standards still not agreed upon most airports are adopting a wait-and-see approach.
Meanwhile, air transport and airport services are among the vital fields the Kingdom has opened to the private sector as part of an ambitious privatization drive. The move was initiated in June 2003 when the Kingdom decided to break the decades-old monopoly of the national carrier, Saudi Arabian Airlines, by opening the Kingdom’s domestic aviation sector to local competition.
Since then, however, there have been announcements and pronouncements, with the plan moving in slow pace. Saudi Arabia approved measures in March 2004 giving the state-owned civil aviation sector greater independence — a move that appeared to bring its goal of privatization a step closer. Since then there has been steady progress toward that end, although, according to knowledgeable sources, nothing dramatic has yet been realized.
In fact, the Kingdom, under the then leadership of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd had much earlier announced that the Cabinet approved transforming the civil aviation sector into a state-owned agency with “financial and administrative independence.” The agency was to be run on commercial lines and both government and private sector figures would be represented on its board. The move was part of the government plan to privatize several sectors and public firms, including aviation and airport services in a bid to open up investment and create jobs. It has been slow in happening.
In 2002, Saudi Arabian Airlines, the national carrier, said its board had approved the sale of cargo and technical services as part of an overall plan to privatize the flagship carrier. It said the board was still studying plans for an option to sell off 30 percent of the airline.
A year later, in 2003, the Kingdom said it would privatize its international and local airports but keep security duties at the facilities in state hands. Civil aviation chief Abdullah Rahimi in 2004 announced that the civil aviation authority would seek to achieve broad private sector participation in running local and international airports by privatizing them, except for security operations. He said his authority was already privatizing some airport services, but did not give a timeframe for completion of the process.
At the same time, the Kingdom signed deals, worth SR638 million, with five Saudi firms to operate regional and local airports for three years. The Kingdom has some 25 airports, including three international airports — King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh with a capacity of 7.5 million passengers annually, King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah and King Fahd International Airport in Dammam — and eight regional and 14 domestic. Plans have been drawn up for building a regional airport in Al-Ula, near Madinah.
The Dhahran International Airport in the Eastern Province was closed in 1999. Built in 1953, it was the Kingdom’s first international airport. It was an international transit point for European and Asian airlines. Today, the Eastern Province has the new state-of-the-art King Fahd International Airport. It is now the Kingdom’s most modern, but also one of its most underused airport, unlike Jeddah’s that is bulging at the seams and cannot be described as state-of-the-art. There have been much-repeated announcements about the planned expansion of Jeddah airport. It is scheduled to cost $1.5 billion and involve two new terminals, but it is still very much on the drawing board stage.
Last April, Saudi Arabian Airlines, which has been handling millions of pilgrims and other travelers, ordered 15 Embraer aircraft from Brazil both to add frequencies on existing regional and domestic flights and eventually develop mini-hubs around Hail in the north and the resort city of Abha in the south. The planes will be delivered next month. The $400 million deal purchase was, according to Saudia Director General Khaled Ben-Bakr, fully self-financed by the airline. The purchase is the first since Saudi Arabian Airlines bought 61 Boeing and McDonnell Douglas planes — including 747-400s, 777-200s, MD-11s and MD-90s — which were delivered between 1997 and 2001.
The Kingdom also has some of the most modern seaports. The number of quays at the Kingdom’s ports increased from 27 in 1975 to 182 in 1994-95 including 23 at Yanbu’s King Fahd Industrial Port. Jeddah Islamic Port has 58 quays alone. Given its operational capacity, it is one of the largest worldwide and thanks to improvements in equipment and facilities and the streamlining of operations, the problem of long waiting period and that of goods piling up has been “eliminated completely.” Waiting period at the seaport is now down to zero, according to officials. The largest commercial vessels can be berthed at the seaport.
The Jeddah Islamic Port has long been the gateway to Makkah and Madinah, with hundreds of thousands of Haj and Umrah pilgrims passing through every year. This year is a major anniversary for the port. It was exactly 1,400 years ago that Caliph Othman closed the ports of Obhur and Shuaiba and made Jeddah the sole port of entry for pilgrims, coming to perform Haj and Umrah.
Aside from the Jeddah port, the Kingdom’s other major ports are King Abdul Aziz Port in Dammam, King Fahd Industrial Port in Jubail, King Fahd International Port in Yanbu, Jizan Port, Jubail Commercial Seaport and Yanbu Commercial Seaport. Secondary seaports in the Kingdom include Al Wajh, Haql, Dhiba, Al Kheraiba, Farasan, Rabigh, Laith, Qunfuda, Al-Suhail, Alkhobar, Al-Aqeer, Ras Abu Qamees. All these ports come under the Saudi Ports Authority. There are 112 maritime companies in the Kingdom, which own some ships and have shares in other carriers.