TAV Insaat, one of the top three airport construction companies in the world based in Turkey, has won a tender worth $400 million to design and build a new terminal at King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Construction of Terminal 5 is planned to be completed in 18 months, according to parent company Akfen Holding. The project is designed to triple the airport’s annual capacity to 25 million passengers per year on completion in three years.

The Saudi Arabian Civil Aviation Authority GACA announced that TAV Construction’s offer was chosen for the project and the official notification was received by TAV in mid-May.

The King Khaled Airport Terminal 5 project is the third tender TAV Construction has won in Saudi Arabia after the Jeddah Airport aircraft maintenance hangars and Madinah International Airport projects. It comprises a 100,000-sq-m passenger terminal and various auxiliary facilities. It also includes a 90,000-sq-m, 3,000-vehicle-capacity multi-storey car-park, fire station, operation centre, power station, apron, airside infrastructure and the elevated roads and infrastructure works that will link Terminal-5 to the existing terminals.

TAV Group president and CEO Sani Sener said: “As our construction company continues to expand in the Middle East, it is creating opportunities for our airport operations company. The new terminal is a very important project as airport privatisations are being intensified in Saudi Arabia. This airport is also one of those which will be privatised soon,” he added.

“In the meantime, our investment and operation in Madinah and our $800-million hangar construction project at Jeddah Airport are progressing as well. We are now happy to be undertaking an airport construction project in the country’s third largest city and capital. The airport construction and operations business depends heavily on technology, and we are proud to be representing our country in this sector throughout the world,” he said.

Having added the Abu Dhabi Airport Midfield Terminal Complex, Madinah Airport and Jeddah Aircraft maintenance hangars to its portfolio in 2012 and now having won the Riyadh Terminal-5 project, TAV Construction has signed more than $16 billion in contracts in the Middle East and North Africa. The design of King Khaled Airport Terminal 5 stands out as a project that will be completed to international standards, satisfy user requirements and complement the local culture, as in all TAV projects, Sener said.

While Terminal 5 will enrich the passenger experience at the Riyadh airport with its architectural design, it will also provide integration with existing terminals in terms of architecture and operations.