The deadlines for construction contracts for work at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah and Abha airport in the southern province of Asir have been extended.

Contractors have until 6 November to prepare bids for the main construction contract for Abha airport. The new airport will have capacity for 5 million passengers a year, will cover a total area of 80,000 square metres and contain 21 passenger gates. In addition to the terminal building, the deal will involve building other airport infrastructure, including a control tower, car parks and facilities such as mosques.

Abha airport is one of several regional airports being developed by Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Civil Aviation (Gaca), including airports in Al-Baha, Qassim and Al-Jouf.

The deadline for design and construction contracts for the upgrade of entrance 17 at Jeddah airport’s Hajj Terminal is now due in on 28 December. The previous deadline for the contracts was 16 September.

There is unlikely to be any significant developments with the expansion of Riyadh’s King Khalid International airport before the end of the year. Gaca continues to assess prequalification documents for the design-and-build contract for the expansion of Terminal 3 and the currently unused Terminal 4. It is not expected that tenders will be issued this year, says a source familiar with the project, particularly with the upcoming Hajj pilgrimage season likely to slow down negotiations.

In February, the local arm of US-based Aecom, Aecom Arabia, was appointed to project manage the Riyadh airport’s expansion scheme. The aim of the upgrade is to increase the airport’s annual capacity to 24 million passengers from the current 14 million.

In May, Gaca awarded a joint venture of Turkey’s TAV and the local Al-Arrab Contracting Company the estimated SR1.5bn ($400m) contract to build the new Terminal 5 building at King Khalid International airport.