Saudi Arabia, through the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), has announced plans to begin an airport privatization programme in the first quarter of 2016.

According to Faisal Al-Sugair, chairman of the board of Saudi Civil Aviation Holding Co., the first airport to be privatized will be Riyadh’s King Khaled International Airport (KKIA), which consists of 4 passenger terminals with eight aero-bridges each, a mosque, covered and uncovered car parking for 11,600 vehicles, a Royal Terminal, a central control tower, and two parallel runways, which are each 4,260 m long.

The plan is to start with the privatization of the airport in the first quarter of 2016, later its air traffic control and IT units in the second and third quarters of 2016. Faisal Al-Sugair stated:

“The airport’s air traffic sector and the IT sector will be privatized in the second and third quarters of 2016 respectively.”

Al-Sugair added that the privatization of the Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA) is scheduled to be finished during the second quarter of 2017. The third airport to be privatized will be King Fahd International Airport of Dammam, which is scheduled to be transfered to the private sector during the third quarter of 2017.

Additionally there are plans to privatize domestic and local airports during the period between 2018 and 2020.

The process to privatize the airports will begin with the creation of an airport company, after that the operation and maintenance of the airports will be privatized.

It is expected that GACA will supervised and managed all privatized airports and services.

This privatization process, which will run until 2020, is part of the country's plan to improve the airport' efficiency and ease the financial burden on the state budget.