Preferred bidders selected to manage Saudi airports

17 January 2008
The Saudi aviation regulator has selected its preferred bidders to manage the kingdom’s three international airports.

The German firm Fraport has been selected to run the country’s two main airports - King Khalid International and King Abdulaziz International in Riyadh and Jeddah respectively.

The Singapore group Changi Airports International has been chosen to manage King Fahd International Airport in Dammam.

The General Authority of Civil Aviation (Gaca) will now conduct a further assessment of the two operators’ technical bids. It has also selected second bidders for each airport, should contract negotiations with its preferred choices fall through.

Changi is the second bidder for Riyadh, while a joint venture between France’s Aeroports de Paris and Schiphol Group from the Netherlands is in second place for Jeddah. The Turkish operator TAV Havalimanlari Holding is the second bidder for Dammam.

Final contract awards are expected in February and Gaca hopes that the winning operators will have staff on the ground to begin work at the airports by May or June. The four groups submitted bids late last year (MEED 2:10:07).

The winning bidders will manage all elements of the airports over a six-year period as Gaca seeks to overhaul the running of the country’s travel hubs. The Saudi government will pay a fixed fee to the operators, which will be supplemented by further performance-related payments.

The foreign operators will be expected to increase traffic, profitability and efficiency at the airports, and train local staff (MEED 5:10:07).

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