RIYADH – The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) announced on Monday that the Terminal 5 of King Khaled International Airport, Riyadh will be partly operational from next Sunday. Tarek Abdul Jabbar, assistant president of GACA, said Saudi Arabian Airlines and Flynas will operate domestic service from the terminal to five destinations –Sharoura, Al-Wajh, Turaif, Al-Qurayyat and Hofuf. The first service will be at 5 a.m. and the last one will be at 1 p.m. The domestic services will be increased gradually to cover all other destinations in the Kingdom, and all the domestic services will be moved from Terminal 3 to Terminal 5. Abdulaziz Abu Harba, director general of the airport, said that passengers will be informed about the schedule of flights operating from the terminal through the websites of the concerned airlines or their contact centers in addition to text messages as well as from the travel agencies. The airport has arranged shuttle bus services between Terminal 5 and international terminals at an interval of every 10 minute. All phases of the terminal will be operational by the middle of Ramadan (June 20). The 106,500-square-metre Terminal 5 is the Kingdom's first privately run terminal. A subsidiary of state-owned Irish airport operator Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) has won in February the bid to operate the terminal, which has a capacity of up to 12 million passengers annually. The terminal can accommodate more than 16 light-bodied or eight wide-bodied aircraft, in addition to parking lots for 3,000 vehicles, as well as commercial and service facilities. The number of passengers used the airport last year reached 11.7 million, a 7.4 percent annual increase. DAA has been chosen to manage and operate the terminal from among five other aviation companies from Europe, Asia and Africa and the contract is for an initial five years.
