Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (Gaca) has extended the bid deadline for the contract to build new aprons at King Abdulaziz International airport in Jeddah.

Contractors now have until 3 September to submit bids for the contract to build Apron 6 and other associated smaller aprons. The original submission date was 16 July. According to sources in the kingdom, about 12 companies have been invited to participate in the tender.

The total area of Apron 6 and other associated works will cover about 250,000 square metres.

The apron deal is the latest of several construction contracts that have been tendered as part of the scheme to expand the King Abdulaziz International airport. In April, Saudia Aerospace Engineering Industries (SAEI) awarded a consortium led by Turkey’s TAV Construction an estimated $800m contract to build its aircraft maintenance, repair and operation (MRO) facility at the Jeddah airport.

The Jeddah airport scheme is one of several major airport expansion projects in the kingdom. Gaca recently received bids from companies for the project management deal for the planned expansion of King Khalid International airport in Riyadh.

The expansion is expected to increase the airport’s annual capacity to about 24 million passengers from the current 14 million. The expansion scheme will involve renovating the existing Terminal 3 and the currently unused Terminal 4, as well as adding four new concourses – A, B, C and D. Gaca is also planning to build a new Terminal 5 building.