SAUDI Arabia plans to award a build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract to expand an airport in the city of Madinah at a cost of SR9 billion ($2.4 billion). The new terminal is expected to be completed within a maximum of four years, Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper quoted Abdullah Rahimi, who heads the country's civil aviation authority GACA, as saying.
The new terminal, at the existing Prince Muhammad bin Abdul-Aziz International Airport, would have a capacity of 12 million passengers per year, the daily quoted airport managing director Abdulfattah Atta as saying. The airport currently has the capacity to handle three million passengers each year.