Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (Gaca) has received bids for the $1.5bn construction contract for the first phase of the Medina International airport.

The initial closing date was 15 December, but this was then extended to 28 February and then 2 May. Gaca again extended it to 5 June at the request of three of the bidders (13.3.11).

Gaca prequalified eight consortiums to bid on the deal in June 2010. However, it is thought that only five of the groups will submit bids.

The development of the airport will take place on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis.

The prequalifiers include:                                                                          

• Airports Company of South Africa.
• Turkey’s YDA, Spain’s Aena Desarrollo Internacional, Spain’s OHL Concesiones.
• The Badr consortium comprised of Integrated Transportation Company, South Korea’s Incheon International Airport Corporation, Central Japan International Airport, South Korea’s Samsung.
• Local Saudi Binladin Group, France’s Aeroports de Paris Management, France’s Bouygues Batiment International.
• The Saudi airplex consortium made up of the local El-Seif Engineering Contracting Company, Ontario-based Marshall Macklin Monaghan Group (MMM),US-based Airport Development Corporation & Houston Airport System, and Dubai-based Emirates NBD.
• Turkey’s Limak Investment, India’s GMR Infrastructure, Turkey’s Mapa Construction.
• Turkey’s TAV Airports Holding, local Saudi Oger, local Al-Rajhi Holding Group, Athens-based Consolidated Contracting Company.
• The Saudi-Malaysian consortium comprised of local Bakri International Energy Company, Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad, local Almabani General Contractors with Italy’s Impregilo SPA and Saudi-Malaysian Riyad Bank.

Medina airport currently handles 3.5 million passengers a year. The expansion of the airport will see this increase to 14 million passengers a year. The first phase of the development involves building landside and airside facilities at the airport under a long-term concession.