JEDDAH, 4 October 2007 — The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) will establish five new airports in the Kingdom’s eastern, western, northern and southern regions, according to Abdullah Al-Ruhaimy, GACA president. Speaking to reporters after receiving offers from five short-listed companies competing for a contract to operate the Kingdom’s three international airports, he said the GACA would invest SR20 billion on new airport projects across the country.
Saudi Arabia has 27 airports including three international ones in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam. Efforts are under way to establish an international airport in Madinah within four years. The government has so far spent nearly SR60 billion on airports.
Ruhaimy said the winner of the airport operation contract would be selected on the basis of technical rather than financial offers. The contract is likely to be awarded on Nov. 21, 2007. “The GACA will study the offers until Nov. 10 and assess the operation features of each company before making a decision,” he added.
The five short-listed companies are from Singapore, the Netherlands, Turkey, Germany and France; all have submitted their bids and the winner will begin work early next year and continue until December 2013.
Ruhaimy said the authority has already completed plans for the development of King Abdul Aziz International Airport (KAIA) in Jeddah, adding that the plan would be implemented shortly.
“We are currently working on improving the condition of existing passenger lounges at KAIA and this will be completed within the next few months,” he added.
Crown Prince Sultan signed an SR902.91 million ($240.77 million) contract with Al-Mabani Company earlier this year to develop and upgrade KAIA’s aviation facilities. The contract covers expansion of the airport’s tarmac and runways in order to increase its annual capacity to 80 million passengers.
Ruhaimy disclosed plans to open the fourth terminal at King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh in order to reduce pressure on the third terminal, which is used by new domestic airlines Sama and Nas in addition to Saudi Arabian Airlines.
He said the GACA would study the possibility of converting the three international airports into holding companies after reviewing the outcome of their commercial operations for three years. He said GACA expects an annual increase of eight percent in air traffic. Last year, more than 15 million passengers used the Jeddah airport while the airports in Riyadh and Dammam received 11 million and 3.5 million passengers, respectively.
