Tourism & Hospitality | Tuesday 3 May, 2016 6:34 am |

Emir of Riyadh Prince Faisal Bin Bandar announced on Monday that Terminal 5 of King Khalid International Airport will start experimental operation this month and all phases of the terminal will be operational by the middle of Ramadan (June 20).

The Emir was speaking to reporters after making an inspection tour of the terminal’s facilities, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Once completed, 106,500-square-meter Terminal 5 is the Kingdom’s first privately run terminal. A subsidiary of state-owned Irish airport operator Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) in February won the bid to operate the domestic terminal, which has a capacity of 12 million passengers annually.

“The schedule of flights from the terminal will be made public soon,” Prince Faisal said.

Sulaiman Al-Hamdan, president of the General Authority of Civil Aviation; Riyadh Mayor Ibrahim Al-Sultan, Airport Director Abdulaziz Abu Harba, Riyadh Passport Director Sulaiman Al-Suhaibani and other senior officials accompanied the emir. He inspected the model of the project and then toured various facilities of the terminal.

The terminal has the capacity to accommodate more than 16 light-bodied or eight wide-bodied aircraft at a time. In addition to parking space for 3,000 vehicles, the terminal will have commercial and service facilities. The number of passengers who used the KKIA last year reached 11.7 million, a 7.4 percent increase over the previous year.

The DAA has been chosen to manage and operate the terminal for an initial five-year period from among five other aviation companies from Europe, Asia and Africa.