According to sources, Saudi Arabia, through the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), has announced plans to begin privatizing its airports and related services by early next year.
The first airport to be privatized will be the King Khaled International Airport in Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh. 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.
King Khaled International Airport is located 35 km north of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It 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 land area allocated for this airport is among the largest in the world. The airport occupies an area of 315 km².
GACA will supervised and managed all privatized airports and services, which will include all international, regional and domestic airports. The country has three major international airports in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam. Additionally it has a large number of domestic airports in most Saudi cities.
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.