The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) has given its employees at Prince Muhammad International Airport in Madinah 30 days to decide whether they want to transfer their contracts to the airport's new operator or seek a secondment for a period of three years. GACA announced the new initiative to solve the crisis that erupted following its implementation of the decision to privatize the airport, Al-Watan newspaper reported Sunday. Earlier, GACA had attempted to settle the issue before the scheduled handing over of the airport's operations to private investors on Tuesday for a period of 25 years. A consortium, led by the leading Turkish airport operator TAV Airports Holding, had signed a contract with GACA in October 2011, for the Build Transfer Operate project of the airport. This is the third time GACA has given a grace period to some 196 employees at the airport who had turned down the previous options put forward by GACA and taken the matter to court. A committee was formed to help find an amicable solution to the problem but has thus far failed to do so. According to the new GACA initiative, employees are free to either directly transfer their contracts to the new operator or transfer to it on the basis of secondment for a period of three years with the same grade, salary and benefits. If they choose the second option, they will continue to remain GACA employees and all the GACA regulations pertaining to their promotions, increments and annual vacation will be applicable. In addition to this, they will be given health insurance benefits and their right to continue with GACA and request a transfer to any of the Kingdom's airports will also be protected. Meanwhile, the administrative court in Madinah has received a petition filed by the employees and set aside the case until Oct. 14. In their petition, the employees allege injustice was meted to them by GACA when it decided to absorb 32 employees at the airport and gave the remaining 196 employees different options. They also questioned GACA's move to restrict their rights and allowances to three years during the secondment period without specifying their status after the three-year period. The employees sought the court's intervention to guarantee their full rights and allowances. GACA spokesman Khaled Al-Khaibari said in an earlier statement the authority is giving top priority to serve the interests of employees while going ahead with its plans to privatize the airport, which is the first Saudi airport to be privatized. The bid submitted by TAV Airports, with its consortium partners Saudi Oger and the Al-Rajhi Holding Group, was announced as the best bid in August of last year and it was followed by signing of the contract. The partners foresee an investment of between $1 billion and $1.5 billion for the project. The consortium will construct a new passenger terminal by the first half of 2015 and will operate the airport for 25 years. The capacity of Madinah Airport will be increased to 8 million passengers per year from its current of 3.3 million. Capacity will eventually be increased to 16 million.
