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Matarat shortlists four bidders for the New Abha airport: The Saudi Civil Aviation Holding Company (Matarat) has prequalified four bidders for the privatization, expansion, and upgrade of the New Abha International Airport project, according to TradeArabia. The project will be executed in two to three phases, with completion expected by 2028.
Who’s in the running? Pre-qualified candidates for the project are:
- India’s GMR Airports Limited ;
- A consortium of Turkish companies Mada Holding International and TAV Havalimanlari Holding;
- A consortium of Saudi Arabia’s Vision International Investment, Asyad Group Holding and Ireland’s Daa International Limited
- A consortium of Skilled Engineers Contracting, Limak İnşaat Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş, Incheon International Airport Corporation, Dar Al-Handasah Consultants (Shair and Partners), and Obermeyer Middle East GmbH.
BACKGROUND- Matarat and the National Centre for Privatization & PPP (NCP) invited expressions of interest earlier this year, to tackle overcapacity issues at Abha’s airport where it currently handles 4.4 mn passengers, far exceeding its original capacity of 1.5 mn. The 30-year project, following a build-transfer-operate (BTO) model, was unveiled in October 2023 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
ICYMI- Abha is not the only one up for a tender: In April 2023, NCP had listed the airport among four new airport projects it intended to tender under the PPP model as part of a bigger pipeline of 200 privatization and PPP projects.
