Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (Gaca) has received four bids for the expansion of Medina International airport.

The four groups submitted their bids on 5 June (MEED 5:6:11). Initially, Gaca had prequalified eight groups to bid in June 2010.

The bidders are:

• Local El-Seif Engineering Contracting Company, Houston-based ADC & HAS Airports, Dubai-based Emirates Financial Services / Emirates NBD Capital, local Abdulaziz Alsaghyir Commercial Investment Company, local Mohammed al-Sheikh
• Local Bakri International Energy Company, Malaysian Airports Holding Berhad, Malaysia’s Lembaga Tabung Hajii, local Mohammed & Abdullah al-Subeaei Investment Company
• Local Saudi Binladin Group, France’s Bouygues Batiment International, France’s Aeroports de Paris Management, Turkey’s Limak Investment, Turkey’s MAPA Construction
• Turkey’s TAV Airports Holding Company, local Saudi Oger, local Al-Rajhi Holding Group

The first phase of the development of Medina airport involves building airside and landside facilities under a long-term concession. Gaca is planning to upgrade and expand the existing airport to increase its passenger handling capacity to 14 million people a year. Currently, Medina airport handles just 3.5 million passengers a year. The increase will be mainly driven by the millions of pilgrims and religious tourists who visit Medina each year, especially during the hajj period.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the Washington-headquartered World Bank, is acting as lead adviser on the project.