Saudi Arabia is planning to launch tenders worth more than SR17 billion ($4.5 billion) this year to modernize two airports in the Kingdom, an official said. Traffic at Saudi airports has reached 30 million passengers annually and is expected to double to 60 million over the next 10 years, said Alaa Samman, director of business development at the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA). In order to cater for this growth, the government wants to launch projects costing at least SR55 billion to overhaul airports to be completed over the next 20 years, he added. For this year alone, GACA wants to launch tenders to build a new airport in the holy city of Madina and a commercial center near Jeddah airport. The new Madina airport, estimated to cost between SR7 to SR8 billion, will increase traffic capacity to eight million passengers a year from three million. “We plan to offer a 25-year build, operate and transfer (BOT) contract for the development of a new airport in Madina,” Samman said. The tender will be launched in May with bids accepted until October and contracts to be awarded by December. In Jeddah, authorities want to build an “airport city” that will include hotels, office buildings, housing units, malls and even a flight academy, Samman said. Jeddah airport, which is a gateway for millions of pilgrims to the holy cities of Makkah and Madina, receives 18 million passengers a year and expects to see an increase of up to 30 million by 2013, Samman said. “We have offered two large pieces of land, one is one square kilometer and the other is 1.4 sq. kilometers, to Saudi and foreign investors for the development of the airport city,” Samman said.
