Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) is gearing up to move ahead with two key airport projects at Qunfudah and Taif in the kingdom.

It has taken delivery of land allocated for the new economic airport at Qunfudah to the north of Makkah province, which will be built on a build-transfer-operate (BTO) basis. Work will soon start on the planning and design of the project. 

Meanwhile, work on a new airport in the northeast Taif province – Saudi Arabia’s fifth international airport – is expected to start shortly. The airport will act as a new gateway for Haj and Umrah and is in line with the kingdom’s Vision 2030, which anticipates the number of pilgrims to reach 30 million a year.

The new airport will able to receive five million passengers annually, eventually reaching eight million.

The airport will start operations with one 4,300-m runway able to accommodate the superjumbo A380 jet, although two runways will be taken into account during the design phase.