The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) is evaluating the prequalification submissions from investors and developers for the international airport project in Taif in Mecca Province.

The list of prequalified companies was to be announced by end September following an end August submissions deadline. The date has since lapsed and the IFC has yet to specify a new date for completing the evaluation process and announcing the prequalified firms.

The IFC has been appointed by Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (Gaca) as lead adviser for the project.

The planned international airport in Taif will be developed as public-private partnership (PPP) project utilising a finance, design, build and operate model.

It will replace the existing domestic airport, whose planned expansion has been put on hold. It will complement Mecca’s King Abdulaziz International airport, which in itself has been undergoing an $8.2bn expansion to increase passenger capacity to up to 80 million passengers a year. The Western Province, which hosts the hajj pilgrimage, requires major infrastructure upgrades to cope with the heavy influx of visitors every year.

It is understood that the chosen private partner for the Taif airport PPP will also operate and maintain the existing domestic airport until the new international airport is completed.

The international airport in Taif will be the second airport to be delivered on a PPP model in Saudi Arabia. The kingdom’s first airport PPP, the $1.2bn Prince Mohammad Abdulaziz airport in Medina, was completed on time by Tibah, which comprises Turkey’s TAV Airports and local contracting firms Saudi Oger and Al-Rajhi Holding. The airport entered operations in June this year.