Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (Gaca) has received offers for the contract to develop, finance, build and operate two airport public-private partnership (PPP) projects in Saudi Arabia.

The airports to be redeveloped include the domestic airports in Hail and Al-Qassim.

According to sources familiar with the projects, two groups have submitted an offer for each airport scheme.

They are understood to include a team comprising Turkey’s TAV and local Al-Rajhi Holding Group, and another team comprising France’s Egis and local Acwa Holding, parent company of power and water developer Acwa Power.

The aviation regulator is believed to be conducting separate negotiations for both schemes although the projects are understood to be relatively less urgent compared to the Taif International airport.

If successfully implemented, the three airports will bring the total number of privatised airports in the kingdom to five.

A contract was recently signed between a joint venture of Turkey’s TAV and local Al-Rajhi Group and Gaca to build and operate a new terminal at Yanbu airport for a period of 30 years.

The kingdom’s first airport PPP, Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz International in Medina, is operating on a BTO basis and entered full operations in June 2015. It is operated by Tibah, a special purpose vehicle formed between Turkey’s TAV and local contracting firms Saudi Oger and Al-Rajhi. The $1.2bn project was financed by Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank (NCB), Sabb and Arab National Bank under the supervision of the IFC.

According to data from Gaca, Hail airport processed 822,000 passengers in 2016, while the Prince Naif Airport in Al-Qassim processed 1.66 million passengers. Annual passenger growths at the airports are at 3 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively.

 Gaca has indicated in 2016 that all airports in the kingdom will be privatised by 2020.