Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH — The General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) has said the North Terminal of Jeddah's King Abdulaziz International Airport that currently serves foreign airlines will be closed in 2014. Mohammad Aabed, the KAIA project supervisor, said all foreign flights would be diverted to the airports' main terminal currently under construction. The new terminal further south of the South Terminal is expected to be operational in the last quarter of 2014. Once work on the new terminal is completed, the North Terminal will be fully closed and the South Terminal, currently used by Saudi Arabian Airlines and Nasair, will be transformed into a cargo hub. GACA said the North Terminal would be considered for the extension of the Haj Terminal. Prince Fahd Bin Abdullah, President of GACA, has said that 31 percent work on the new airport terminal has been completed. The terminal, with a capacity to serve 30 million passengers annually, will begin operations in 2014. The new airport is being built on a 105 square kilometer area, and its total capacity will reach 80 million passengers after the completion of the third phase in 2035. The total terminal area will be 670,000 square meters. The new terminal will serve both Saudia and foreign carriers. The international gates will be accessible by an automated passengers transport system. The departure lounge will have 200 check-in counters, in addition to 80 self-service counters. There will be 46 departure gates and waiting lounges, a hotel and a modern shopping area. The project also includes an expressway connecting Al-Haramain Expressway to Madinah Road, and crossing with Prince Majed Road, which will be the main access road to the airport. The Haramain High Speed Railway will have a stop at the airport. The project will have the world's tallest control tower, which by Wednesday reached a height of 46 meters. A 7-km service tunnel will link all utility projects, including three power plants and three information centers. An automated train will transfer passengers across the 700-meter distance between the terminals and boarding gates. Around 20,000 tons of steel has been used in the construction of the airport's roof. The construction of the new airport will cost a total of SR27 billion. Statistics released by GACA show that 22.9 million passengers used Jeddah airport in 2011, compared with 19.9 million in 2010 and accounting for more than 42 percent of a total 54 million air passengers in the Kingdom.
