JEDDAH, 15 May 2007 — A delegation of German groups and companies presented their corporate airport building and operating skills at a seminar in Jeddah yesterday. Their aim was to introduce their wide experience to the Saudi market with a view of tapping into the potentially booming airport building and operations market driven by the current Saudi economic expansion.
In his keynote opening address, Abdulaziz Al-Angari, executive vice president of GACA (General Authority for Civil Aviation), highlighted the strong trading and economic relations between Saudi Arabia and Germany and noted that in 2005, imports from Germany were $4.85 billion with a balance of trade of $3.76 billion in Germany’s favor.
Al-Angari reviewed the potential for growth in air travel and the supporting infrastructure in the Kingdom.
Noting the development of the King Abdulaziz Airport in Jeddah, together with airports in Madinah and other regional airports, he said that air traffic to and from the Kingdom was growing at rates in excess of international averages. He saw key reasons for this as the vast size of the growing Saudi market compared with other countries in the region, large scale development projects earmarked in the state budget or being implemented by the private sector, increase in pilgrim traffic and the Kingdom’s advantageous geographical position with respect to Asia, Africa and Europe.
German ambassador Jurgen Krieghoff said that Germany has increasing economic, political and cultural cooperation with Saudi Arabia, like the European region in general. “Although only a one-day meeting, it will be very concise and precise, enough to convey the first ideas of the requirements of Saudi Arabia and the possibilities of the German economy in this area,” he said, referring to the specialist skills of the German delegation.
Addressing the audience, Dr. Werner Piefer, resident representative for the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), invited the visiting companies to take advantage of what he saw as a valuable business opportunity. He said that the GTZ — sponsors of the German visit — as a government-owned entity run on the lines of a private business that combined the reliability of a government entity with the efficiency of a private company.
“We have been in Saudi Arabia for more than 30 years and have cooperated with government and private industries.” He noted that currently, the GTZ, which has more than 10,000 employees worldwide and is involved with over 2,500 projects, was working with the ministry of transport on traffic and transport projects in the Kingdom. The main partner, as a result of government-to-government agreements was, Piefer said, the ministry of finance. “Our interest is to participate, to offer our services together with German industry,” he said.
Delegation member Moritz Schmidt, director of Airport Development for Lufthansa Consulting GmbH, said that as a subsidiary of Lufthansa, the company was unique in being able to gather a vast range of knowledge and experience from the airline customer’s standpoint. “We do not approach airport authorities just to sell them skills, but we also bring them knowledge from the customer’s point of view.”
He added that this enabled airport designers and builders to build customer-friendly designs from the beginning that were based on the real experiences of a commercial airline. “So often airports are designed from an idea,” he said, “and when they are complete, they find bottlenecks for example. We can help overcome that.”
The German team consisted of companies which have contributed to airport construction, planning, fitting out, security and operating worldwide including Koch, Lindner, Obermayer, Seimens, Voessing, EADS and Lufthansa.
During the discussions with Ulf Shulte of Dornier Consulting, security issues featured as a key component of airport design. “Security needs to be built into the master plan, he told guests.
He said that by 2025, he estimated passenger throughput in Saudi Arabia to be in the region of 100 million per year, compared with the 2005 total of 36 million. “SR35 billion investment will be needed in infrastructure to handle this and security, besides being a factor in safer travel, must be integrated into financial and project planning, as it has knock on effects in jobs in airports and the regional infrastructure.”