Riyadh airport to become a massive aviation hub
Saudi Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced on Monday plans to transform Riyadh
airport into a gigantic aviation hub with six parallel runways and designed to
accommodate up to 120 million travellers by 2030.
According
to state news agency SPA, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) will
build King Salman International Airport, which should span over an area of 57
square kilometres and include current King Khaled airport.
"The
airport project is in line with Saudi Arabia's vision to transform Riyadh to be
among the top ten city economies in the world and to support the growth of
Riyadh's population to 15–20 million people by 2030," SPA said.
It added
King Salman airport would create over 100,000 direct and indirect jobs, handle
185 million travellers and process 3.5 million tons of cargo by 2050.
Aviation is
part of a government strategy to become a global transportation and logistics
hub by 2030, with Riyadh airport as the operation base of a brand new airline,
RIA, that would compete with regional heavyweights Emirates and Qatar Airways.
The
77-year-old state airline Saudia will be based out of the Red Sea city Jeddah
under the transportation strategy that calls for the establishment of the two
hubs.
Source: https://www.khaleejtimes.com/