Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (Gaca) is planning to set up free zones around its two largest airports in line with the kingdom’s long-term economic diversification programme.

The aviation regulator said it is engaging “a lot of agencies” for the development of the free zones at Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International and Riyadh’s King Khalid International.

Gaca Vice-chairman Faisal al-Sugair told London-based news agency Reuters that the free zones aim to attract foreign business through a more relaxed policy in terms of trade licences and visa and taxation regime. “[The free zones] would be large enough to include manufacturing facilities,” said Al-Sugair.

The free zones, Al-Sugair cited, is part of the kingdom’s national transformation plan and is being spearheaded by the Council of Economic and Development Affairs (CEDA) and the Public Investment Fund. Both agencies are understood to be working along with Gaca and the Commerce Ministry in developing the planned free zones.

Saudi Arabia’s 27 airports recorded a 9.6 per cent increase in annual passenger movements in 2015 to reach 81.9 million. In November 2015, the aviation regulator also announced plans to privatise all airports by 2020, in a measure seen to help plug the kingdom’s budget gap due to the sustained low oil prices.