Commentary
Colin Foreman
Editor

The GCC has two of the world’s largest airport construction projects. These are the estimated $33bn expansion of Dubai’s Al-Maktoum International airport and King Salman International airport, which will expand and upgrade the existing King Khalid International airport in Riyadh.

As with any major project, there is a lot of planning work involved, and after two years of engineering and design work, tendering for the first construction packages has started.

Both projects are strategic priorities. Dubai needs an airport with more capacity so that it, together with its airline Emirates, can remain a leading global aviation hub. Riyadh needs a large-scale airport to establish itself as an aviation hub with its new airline, Riyadh Air. It also needs an upgraded airport to welcome the influx of visitors to the kingdom that will attend Expo 2030 in Riyadh and Fifa’s football World Cup in 2034.

Despite the importance of both projects, there are questions over how they will proceed. In Dubai, as has been the case since the 2008 global financial crisis, the concern is funding. Work for the Al-Maktoum expansion project has been tendered before and not proceeded, presumably due to financial reasons. This time around, the expectation is that contracts will be awarded, even if it means that contractors have to help arrange financing solutions.

In Riyadh, the talk is of budget constraints, and for the airport, this could mean that while the project will proceed, it may be streamlined, with some of the larger, more complicated and costly assets being set aside for later delivery.

These questions should be answered by the end of this year as contractors wait for awards to be made on the first major construction packages. If those awards are not forthcoming, then the market will have to adjust its expectations.