Traffic at Saudi airports has reached 30 million passengers annually and is expected to double to 60 million over the next 10 years, said Alaa Samman, director of business development at the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA).In order to cater for this growth, the government wants to launch projects costing at least SR55 billion to overhaul airports to be completed over the next 20 years, he added. For this year alone, GACA wants to launch tenders to build a new airport in the holy city of Madinah and a commercial center near Jeddah airport.Developing lands around Saudi Arabia's busiest airports in Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam are part of GACA's strategy of increasing revenues in preparation for full privatization.Another "airport city" is planned in the capital Riyadh, to be launched on a smaller scale next year. Dammam in the Eastern Province will follow later. The Kingdom has 27 airports."We are moving toward commercial based operations... we aim to be fully independent from the government so we have no choice but to increase our revenues to the highest possible level," Samman said.The new Madinah airport, estimated to cost between SR7 billion and SR8 billion ($2 billion), will increase traffic capacity to eight million passengers a year from three million."We plan to offer a 25-year build, operate and transfer (BOT) contract for the development of a new airport in Madinah," Samman told Reuters. The tender will be launched in May with bids accepted until October and contracts to be awarded by December.Saj Ahmad, an analyst at FBE Aerospace in London, said the work was needed to enable Saudi Arabia to match airport investments by other Gulf states."Saudi airport development has fallen behind that of GCC rivals Qatar and the UAE," he said. But he cautioned that the efforts could be stymied by the country's restrictive tourism regulations"Much of the Saudi capacity will remain unused given the kingdom's restraints on tourism, which the rest of the GCC thrives on," he said. "It's a classic case of too ittle, too late."