“GACA” to (Maaal): We plan to launch special zones at Jeddah and Dammam airports

By Fahd Al-Talal:

Engineer Mohammed Al Khuraisi, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Business Intelligence at General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), confirmed that work is underway to launch two special zones at Jeddah and Dammam airports, and soon a new air carrier will be announced in the Dammam region.

Al-Khuraisi added in an interview with Maaal newspaper on the sidelines of the Riyadh Air Show: The aviation sector represents huge opportunities in terms of investment, and the opportunities are estimated at about 365 billion riyals, almost half of which comes from airports such as King Salman Airport, which will witness a huge expansion that will increase the capacity of… 40 million to 120 million passengers, and also raising the capacity of King Abdulaziz Airport in Jeddah to the same level.

Al-Khuraisi added that 40% of investment opportunities come from carriers, whether passenger aircraft carriers or air cargo aircraft, which are witnessing a huge and significant expansion in the Kingdom, and 10% of investment opportunities come from the services sector, such as special economic zones, public or private aviation.

Al-Khuraisi continued: We launched a private aviation plan that includes six new airports for private aviation, and nine new lounges for existing airports.

Regarding coordination with countries to redesign the airspace, Al-Khuraisi said: We coordinate with all countries in this field, and our airspace is managed 100% by the air navigation company, which has a 100% localization rate. Also, all those who manage our airspace today are young men and women, and accidents are zero percent. 24 hours a day, and there were challenges in the previous period in the region, and many countries closed their airspace. The Kingdom embraced all aircraft through its airspace, with about 4,000 aircraft crossing per hour, all of which are ably managed by Saudi young men and women.