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Top Airport Projects
Landscape 2024

March, 2024

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 Middle East and Africa Historical Airport Projects
2022 was the second best year in a decade in terms of spending on airport projects in the region

Value of MEA airport contracts awarded, 2014 – 2023 ($m) TopValue

MEA of
countries
GCC O&G by contracts
value of airport contracts
awarded, 2012 toawarded, 2014 to 2023 ($m)
2021 ($m)

8,000
7,557
7,000
6,431
7,000
6,000

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6,000 5,723 5,140
5,000

5,000
4,593
4,000
3,887 3,384
4,000 3,247
3,543
3,000
3,006 2,498
3,000 2,280
2,513
2,000 1,698
2,008 1,420
1,842 1,879
2,000 1,177
1,019
1,000
1,000
0
Saudi Kuwait Qatar Ethiopia Iraq Bahrain Nigeria UAE Egypt Algeria
0 Arabia
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
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MEED Projects
 Top Airport Projects under execution
Project Country Contract Value ($m)
MPW, Kuwait - Kuwait Airport Expansion: New Passenger Terminal 2: Package 1: Main Works Kuwait 4,329
Ethiopian Airlines - Addis Ababa International Airport Ethiopia 3,200
HIA - HIA Expansion: Phase 2B: Concourse D and E Qatar 1,360
SARED - King Abdulaziz International Airport: Aircraft Maintenance Hangars Saudi Arabia 700
GACA - King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Airport in Jizan Saudi Arabia 560
MPW, Kuwait - Kuwait Airport Expansion: New Passenger Terminal 2: Package 2: Landside Works Kuwait 550

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Dhi Qar Investment Commission - Nasiriyah International Airport in Dhi Qar Iraq 534
Agence Nationale de l’Aviation Civile - Glo-Djigbé International Airport Benin 494
GACA - King Khalid International Airport Expansion: Upgrading of Terminal 1 & 2 Saudi Arabia 480
MoT, Iraq - Imam Hussein International Airport: Phase 1: Airfield Iraq 430
RCAA/QA - New Bugesera International Airport Development: Phase I Rwanda 418
Egyptian Airports Company - Hurghada International Airport Expansion: Passenger Terminal Egypt 320
MOAD - New Ouagadougou-Donsin International Airport: Phase I Burkina Faso 300
GACA - Prince Abdulmohsin Bin Abdulaziz Airport Expansion Saudi Arabia 280
Anbar Investment Commission - Anbar International Airport Iraq 260
Civil Aviation Authority of Uganda - Kabaale International Airport Uganda 248
Egyptian Airports Company - New Terminal Building at Borg Al Arab Intl. Airport Egypt 200
Ninawa Investment Commission - Mosul International Airport Redevelopment Iraq 184
AACB - Melchior Ndadaye International Airport Modernization Burundi 160
Matarat Holding - New Passenger Terminal at Hail International Airport Saudi Arabia 160

MEED Projects 3
 Contractor Ranking
Kuwait’s New Passenger Terminal 2 expansion is the largest current airport project under execution
Top 20 largest contractors in MEA by active airport projects ($m) and top 10 countries by value of work in execution

Limak Holding 4,879

China Communications Construction Company 3,520
China CAMC Engineering Company 813
China Railway Construction Corporation 700
TAV Construction 680

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Midmac Contracting Co 680
China Airport Construction Group 654
Safari Co 560
China State Construction Engineering Corporation 534
UAE Benin Rwanda
Al Arrab Contracting Co. 440
Egypt 3% 3% 2%
Serah Al Belad 430 3%
Kuwait
Mota-Engil 418 Chad 29%
5%
Binladin Contracting Group 407
Qatar
Sinohydro 290 8%
Milvest 290
Iraq
Polikon 260 11%
Ethiopia
IC Ictas Construction 240 19%
Saudi Arabia
Al-Rashid Trading & Contracting 240 17%
Cengiz Insaat 210
Makyol 210

0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500 4,000 4,500 5,000

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Source: MEED Projects
 MEA Future Airport Contracts
$81bn of airport contracts are planned and unawarded across the MEA region

Value of MEA Airport contracts unawarded by country in terms of value ($m), number and project stage

Main Contract
60,000 50
Bid Main
Bid
2% Contract PQ
Evaluation
1% 0% 45
50,000
40

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Study $140bn Design
52% 35
40,000 45%

No. of projects
Project value ($m)

30

30,000 25

20
20,000
15

10
10,000
5

0 0
xx. Saudi Arabia UAE Kuwait Qatar Bahrain Iraq Kazakhstan Rwanda Oman Djibouti Others

Value of unawarded contracts ($m) Volume of unawarded projects

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Source: MEED Projects
 Future Airport Projects
Project Country Value ($m)
PIF - King Salman International Airport in Riyadh Saudi Arabia 24,700
DAEP - Dubai South: Al Maktoum International Airport: Strategic Plan: Ultimate Phase UAE 14,000
DGCA - North Kuwait Airport Kuwait 12,000
HIA - Hamad International Airport Expansion Qatar 11,116
GACA - King Abdulaziz International Airport: New Passenger Terminal (Terminal 2) Saudi Arabia 10,000
MOT - New Greenfield Airport Bahrain 10,000

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DAEP - Dubai South: Al Maktoum International Airport: Strategic Plan: Phase 2 UAE 7,000
GACA - King Abdulaziz International Airport Saudi Arabia 3,926
DAEP - Dubai South: Al Maktoum International Airport Expansion: Strategic Plan Phase
UAE 3,584
1: West Terminal
ADAC - Abu Dhabi Airport Expansion UAE 3,083
MoT, Iraq - Imam Hussein International Airport in Karbala Iraq 2,350
PIF - King Salman International Airport: Airside Package Saudi Arabia 2,000
PIF - King Salman International Airport: Landside Package Saudi Arabia 2,000
Matarat Holding - Abha International Airport Upgrade Saudi Arabia 2,000
DAEP - Dubai South: Al Maktoum International Airport Expansion UAE 1,627
EKG - Ulken Naryn Airport in Kazakhstan Kazakhstan 1,500
MPW, Kuwait - Kuwait Airport Expansion: New Passenger Terminal 2 Kuwait 1,407
GACA - King Abdulaziz International Airport: Redevelopment of Hajj Arrival Halls Saudi Arabia 1,300
GACA - King Abdulaziz International Airport: Expansion of Terminal 1 Saudi Arabia 1,200
RCAA/QA - New Bugesera International Airport Development Rwanda 1,164
MEED Projects 6
 King Salman International Airport
The $30bn King Salman International airport project includes
developing six runways and 12 square kilometres of airport
support facilities. The plans for King Salman International
airport involve building an airport that can accommodate 120
million passengers by 2030.

UK-based Mace has won the delivery partner role on the

world’s largest airport project. Delivery partner roles typically
involve assisting the project client with the development of
the project. This includes project management, design

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management, cost consulting and procurement advice. Mace
has extensive experience on airport projects and has worked
on London’s Heathrow airport for over 30 years.

For KSIA, Foster + Partners, also based in the UK, won the
competition to design the masterplan. The architectural firm is
now working on the concept designs for the airport’s
buildings, while US-based Jacobs is working on the
infrastructure design for the airport.

Value: $30bn
Phase: Design

MEED Projects, PIF 7

 Abha airport PPP is a brave new project
The massive interest in the project signals a new era for the local aviation sector
Located in Asir province, the existing Abha International airport caters to domestic flights, as well as direct flights to international
destinations including Sanaa, Cairo, Doha, Sharjah and Dubai. The planned development involves increasing the capacity of the airport
by nearly 10-fold, to 13 million passengers a year, and tripling the number of flights to 90,000 annually. The project is part of a wider
strategy to develop the Asir region as a tourism destination, despite the airport having been the target of several attacks by the
Yeman-based Houthi forces between 2019 and 2021.

A total of 100 companies, comprising investors, airport operators, contractors and consultants, have expressed interest in a contract to
develop and operate a new passenger terminal at Saudi Arabia's Abha International airport. Local companies accounted for the
majority of the interested parties, at 52. The remainder was comprised of prominent companies in the investment and asset

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management world, including the US' Blackrock and the UK's Aberdeen Investcorp, as well as airport operators and managers from
Europe, China and South Korea, among others.

The restructuring of the Saudi aviation sector will play a key role in the potential success of the Abha airport public-private partnership
(PPP) project, following an unsuccessful attempt in 2017 to procure four airport PPPs. Saudi Arabia announced in 2021 that ownership
of the 35 airports in the kingdom would be transferred from the General Authority of Civil Aviation (Gaca), which will assume a full-
time regulatory role to PIF.

In the interim, the airports were to be referred to the Matarat Holding Company, which is the procuring entity for the Abha airport PPP
project. The other planned airport PPP schemes, following the one in Abha, are in Taif, Hail and Qassim. They comprise three of the
four airport projects for which PPP iterations were awarded in 2017 before being cancelled.

The 30-year build-transfer-operate contract for the Abha airport PPP project will provide investors ample time to recover their
investment. Essentially, the successful bidder or bidders in the Abha airport project will also gain entry into a lucrative market,
considering Riyadh's plan to privatise all airports in the kingdom, and given the long-term goal of transforming the kingdom into a
regional and international tourism and logistics hub. So far, the kingdom has two airport PPP projects. The first one, the Hajj terminal at
the Jeddah airport, was supported by multilateral development banks, while a team of Turkiye's TAV and the local Al Rajhi Holding won
the contract in 2012 to develop and operate the $1.2bn Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz International airport in Medina, which
became operational three years later.
While it is still early days for the Abha airport PPP competition, the significant interest in the project signals a new era for the Saudi
aviation sector as it attempts to become more efficient and profitable.

In October 2023, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud announced a
masterplan for the expansion of the new Abha International airport. Following the announcement, Matarat announced that the UK- 8
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based Foster & Partners had won the design competition for the new terminal PPP project.
Kuwait Airport Expansion: New Passenger Terminal 2
Terminal 2 (T2) at the Kuwait International Airport (KIA) is being developed by the airport’s operator
Directorate General of Civil Aviation to transform it into a new regional air hub in the Gulf. The new state-of-
the-art terminal is being constructed in three phases. While the first phase will add a capacity of 13 million
passengers a year, the subsequent phases will enhance the capacity to between 25 million and 50 million
passengers a year. Designed to provide the highest level of passenger comfort, the new T2 will significantly
enhance the airport’s status as the gateway to the State of Kuwait.

A $4.3bn construction contract was awarded to Turkish company Limak, making it the biggest tender awarded
abroad in a single package by Turkish contractors.

The project management contract was secured by Ineco, which has adapted triple control systems (deadlines,

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costs, and documentation) using advanced computer applications for executing the expansion project.

The contract to study, design, and supervise the new passenger terminal building construction was awarded to
Gulf Consult, in association with Foster+Partners, (UK). Arup (UK), NACO, and Parsons Brinckerhoff (UK/Kuwait)
are the specialist sub-consultants for the project.

Otis was contracted by Limak to supply 190 elevators for the new terminal in September 2019.

Limak appointed Robert Bird Group (RBG) to provide construction engineering services. RBG assisted Limak
with the project’s construction methodology and erection sequence (CMES). Mammoet, a heavy lifting and
transport company, was selected to perform transportation and installation works for the project.

Werner Sobek was engaged to provide structural engineering of the main structure, BIM services, and facade
engineering for the project.

Deerns received a contract to provide design services for the airport-specific systems in and around the
terminal. The company designed the airport security systems, clean apron concept, and telecommunication
network system.

Aecom was contracted to provide architecture, design, and BIM management services. DESK Yapi, an
electromechanical company based in Turkey, was engaged to construct the heating, ventilation, and air
conditioning (HVAC) ducting, piping, and equipment, along with associated BMS and motor control centre
(MCC) panels.
Value: $4.3bn
Phase: Execution
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 Aviation’s safest year in 2023 as passenger traffic rise projected
The industry is likely to welcome the positive news after concerns over quality control and supply chain issues

Commercial aviation had one of its safest years in 2023 as passenger levels rose above 2019 levels on most major routes, with overall traffic also expected to exceed pre-
pandemic levels in 2024. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported that there were no hull loses or fatal accidents involving passenger jets in 2023,
despite a 17% increase in jet and turboprop aircraft movements, though a single fatal turboprop accident resulted in the deaths of 72 people. Despite the single tragic
accident, IATA’s annual safety report found the overall accident rate was only 0.8 per million sectors in 2023, meaning one accident for every 1.26 million flights, marking
a significant decrease on the 1.3 rate of 2022.

IATA declared 2023 the “safest year for flying by several parameters”, with only North America and the Asia-Pacific region recording increases in accident rates, with the
latter suffering the only fatal turboprop crash of the year after an incident in Nepal in January 2023 and a doubling of the number of accidents in Russia. IATA director-

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general Willie Walsh said the data for 2023 showed the priority of safety for the aviation industry, though he added: “A single fatal turboprop accident with 72 fatalities…
reminds us that we can never take safety for granted.

The sentiment comes at the same time as the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) published its projection for global passenger air traffic levels this year. The
ICAO expects 2% growth in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2019. The ICAO said its projections for the whole year predict passenger traffic will
be around 3% above 2019 levels, though cargo traffic is not expected to follow the same trajectory, with current projections placing freight tonne-kilometres (FTK) around
2% below 2019 levels.

The ICAO said most international Asian routes were struggling to recover from the pandemic, recording traffic “substantially lower” than in 2019, meaning North
American and European airlines continue to record the majority of the industry’s profits. IATA and the ICAO’s data is particularly promising for an industry that has been
hit by concerns around quality control at the beginning of 2024, attributed to a blow-out incident on an Alaska Airlines flight and heavy criticism of Boeing’s safety
culture. Supply chain issues have also returned to the forefront of conversations in recent months, with both Boeing and Airbus delaying the delivery of aircraft to airline
customers for varying reasons.

This article was first published by MEED's sister site Airport Technology 10
Saudi Arabia accelerates its mining investments; Cairo confronts
deepening security and economic threats; Offshore oil and gas
spending reaches a decade-high

Saudi Arabia’s natural resources are estimated to be worth $2.5tn, making the metals and
mining industry crucial to Riyadh’s Vision 2030 socioeconomic transformation strategy.

The latest issue of MEED Business Review examines how the kingdom's Ministry of Industry &
Mineral Resources is leading efforts to boost investment in the sector with a mineral

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exploration incentive programme valued at $182m.

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