The Kingdom's three main international airports in Jeddah, Riyadh, and Dammam will be turned into “airport cities” in a partnership between the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) and private companies according to statements made at a symposium here Monday on financing the Kingdom's aviation sector. “We give priority to the importance of regulatory stability and consultation, so that the risks of investing in the sector can be restricted to the usual business and economic factors,” said Engineer Abdullah Noor Rahimi, GACA president. We will start the airport cities project by developing the major airports in Jeddah, Dammam, and Riyadh. The airfields have all been generously endowed with land reserves, which will likely meet the rush of traffic for many decades to come,” said Rahimi. “We have had a lot of interest from airport operators and developers throughout the world; we have also contracted world-class operators from Frankfurt airport, Fraport, and Singapore Airport to support the operation and further development of international gateway airports in Jeddah, Riyadh, and Dammam. They will work with local management teams for six years,” Rahimi said. Air traffic will be increased because of the launching of several huge commercial and industrial projects in the Kingdom, he said. “We plan to bring in equity investors to our airports, and obviously these operators will be well positioned to bid, providing they perform effectively.” Regarding what the future airport cities in the Kingdom will look like, he said, “The process is underway; we have plans for huge commercial offices, malls, hotels, conference halls, and service agencies to be established inside the airport. Each airport will be a separate city where people can live, shop, study, and attend international conferences, in addition to enjoying many other services,” attracting more tourists and investment, he explained. More than 30 aviation companies had presented offers to join the aviation sector in the Kingdom, but GACA needs to confirm that these companies meet all international and domestic requirements. “We may permit three or four new private aviation companies to enter the Kingdom's aviation market in the coming months,” he said. – SG “Our vision is to attract the largest number of business opportunities to the safe aviation investment in the Kingdom, keeping in mind that such investment opportunities require an enormous budget. For example, the development of Al-Madina airport will cost SR5 billion,” he said. In addition to establishing airport cities, GACA will support the Kingdom's new economic cities in terms of transport. “Accessibility is vital for these cities, and the size of the Kingdom means that surface transport is not a viable option for business travelers seeking to invest in new cities. Therefore, we are upgrading or contracting for the establishment of airports which will serve each of the economic cities,” he said.
