According to sources, an executive from Saudi Arabia's General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) has announced that the country has plans to privatize 11 airports by 2020.

In early January, we reported that Saudi Arabia, through GACA, announced plans to begin an airport privatization programme in the first quarter of 2016.

Under the airport privatization plan, the first facility to be privatized will be Riyadh’s King Khaled International Airport (KKIA). It will be operated under a new company to be called the Airports Company of Riyadh. The airport consists of 4 passenger terminals with eight aero-bridges each, a mosque, covered and uncovered car parking for 11,600 vehicles, a Royal Terminal, a central control tower, and two parallel runways, which are each 4,260 m long.

Other airports that will be privatized are the following:

• Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA)
• King Khalid Airport in Riyadh
• King Fahd International Airport of Dammam,, and
• airports in Abha, Al Qassim, Hail, Bisha, Yanbu, Jizan and Al Ahsa.

It is expected that GACA will supervised and managed all privatized airports and services.

This privatization process, which will run until 2020, is part of the country's plan to improve the airport' efficiency and ease the financial burden on the state budget.