Saudi Arabia invites bids for Abha airport

17 June 2013

New terminal will have a capacity for 5 million passengers

Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Civil Aviation (Gaca) has invited contractors to submit bids for the contract to build the new Abha airport.

Contractors have until 19 August to submit bids for the main construction contract for the airport at Abha, which is located in the southern province of Asir.

The 5-million-passenger capacity terminal will have a total area of 80,000 square metres and will contain 21 passenger gates. In addition to the terminal building, the contract will involve building other airport infrastructure, including a control tower, car parks and facilities such as mosques.

The Abha project is the latest of a number of new aviation and airport expansion schemes that Gaca is pressing ahead with.

On 3 June, Gaca received bids from 17 groups for the contract to build the new King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz airport in Jizan. The Jizan scheme will involve building a three-storey passenger terminal, a control tower, air cargo zones and other facilities. The terminal will have 10 gates and a VIP lounge.

A consortium of the local Saudi Lebanese Modern Construction Company, the local Safari and Safari & Salmoc and the local Al-Subaie submitted the low bid of SR2.57bn ($685m). This was 7 per cent less than the SR2.76bn price submitted by the second-lowest bidder, the local Saudi Pan Kingdom Company (Sapac).

The airport will be located 30 kilometres from Jizan Economic City (JEC). It will have the capacity to handle up to 2.4 million passengers a year. The Jizan scheme is part of Gaca’s plans to spend $10.66bn on building new airports until 2030.

In May, the airport body awarded an estimated SR1.5bn contract to Turkey’s TAV and the local Al-Arrab Contracting Company to build the new Terminal 5 building at King Khalid International airport in Riyadh.

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