Irish firm wins bid to operate Riyadh airport terminal

A subsidiary of state-owned Irish airport operator Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) has won the bid to operate Saudi Arabia’s first privately run terminal, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Monday.

Colm Moran, CEO of DAA International, signed the deal with Sulaiman Al-Hamdan, president of the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), to manage and operate Terminal 5 of King Khaled International Airport of Riyadh. The domestic terminal is expected to be operational within a few months.

The contract came in light of GACA’s policy aimed at privatization of airports and their operations to raise the level of services and tasks according to competitive criteria.

The 106,500-square-metre Terminal 5 is nearing completion and has a capacity of up to 12 million passengers annually. The terminal has the capacity to accommodate more than 16 light-bodied or eight wide-bodied aircraft, in addition to parking lots for 3,000 vehicles, as well as commercial and service facilities. The number of passengers used the airport last year reached 11.7 million, a 7.4 percent annual increase.

DAA has been chosen to manage and operate the terminal from among five other aviation companies from Europe, Asia and Africa, SPA said. “This is DAA International’s first airport management contract and our intention is to build on this win by adding further significant contracts in the months and years ahead,” Moran said in a statement. The contract is for an initial five years.

Moran said that the company has a proven ability “to generate significant revenue from non-aeronautical sources such as retail, food and beverage and car parking”. “There is strong demand for additional domestic air travel within Saudi Arabia.”

The Kingdom has announced plans to privatize by 2020 all 27 of the airports currently run by GACA. In an initial step towards privatization, the Kingdom last July opened the upgraded Prince Muhammad International Airport in Madinah. It was built by TIBAH Airports Development Co, a consortium of Turkey’s TAV Airports along with local firms Al-Rajhi and Saudi Oger. The joint venture runs the airport.