New King Abdul Aziz International Airport ‘will revive aviation sector’

Once completed, the new King Abdul Aziz International Airport would attract passengers between Europe and Asia, an official from the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said recently.
“Construction at the new airport will be completed soon. It will attract the most extensive transit aviation traffic between Europe and Asia,” said Khaled Al-Khaibari, spokesman for GACA.
The new facility includes a hotel with 120 rooms for transit passengers. “The airport should serve as a hub linking the East and West, and also for those transit passengers who wish to perform Umrah.”
“Other hotels will be established in the commercial area adjacent to the main airport hotel,” said Al-Khaibari. The airport would include 54 open waiting lounges that would offer more flexibility for passenger movement.
He said more facilities offered by the airport would help increase the number and frequency of transit flights. GACA is also working on completing a new strategy for 2020, to boost and improve air transportation in the Kingdom.
It aims to bring about a quantum leap in the Saudi air transportation sector by implementing development programs, building new airports and enhancing the overall capacity of facilities, said Al-Khaibari.
The strategy involves other development programs at 27 regional and domestic airports in the country, to increase capacity to more than 100 million passengers by 2020.
As for the new airport, the first phase of the plan would raise its capacity to 30 million passengers a year, 43 million in the second phase, and 80 million in the third and final phase.