Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (Gaca) is still reviewing the business plan for Taif International airport and no specific timeline has been set on when the scheme could be revived.

“In the near future things will clear up… where the project building mechanism will be determined, in addition to its cost and other items,” a spokesperson for Gaca told MEED.

External sources told MEED in July that Gaca has selected Bahrain’s Gulf International Bank (GIB) as an adviser for the privatisation of four airports, which presumably includes Taif, along with Qassim, Hail and Hassa.

Taif International was expected to be tendered in 2016, but was cancelled in May shortly after it reached the prequalification stage. The Washington-based International Finance Corporation was advising Gaca on the scheme.

The planned airport in Taif was to become the kingdom’s fifth international airport and the second to be developed using a build-transfer-operate (BTO) model, following in the footsteps of Medina’s Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz International airport, which entered full operations in June 2015. It was also to become the third airport catering to hajj and umrah pilgrims, in addition to Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International (KAIA) and the Medina airport.

However, some potential bidders have voiced strong reservations on the feasibility of Taif unless Gaca commits to diverting a certain percentage of passengers from the Jeddah airport to the planned new airport.