President of GACA Outlines Future Plans

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RIYADH, 6 January 2016: Sulaiman Al-Hamdan, President of the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), held a press conference in Riyadh on Tuesday 5 January, at which he outlined the Authority’s future plans, upcoming programs and outlook for the future.
 
Held at King Khalid International Airport Terminal 5 under the banner “General Authority of Civil Aviation: Future Outlook,” the conference was attended by members of the media, as well as people from GACA s upper management.
 
In addition, the conference was attended by Dr. Faisal Al-Suqair, Chairman of Saudi Civil Aviation Holdings and Advisor to the President; Captain Abdulhakim Badr, the President’s Deputy for Security, Safety and Air Transport; Tariq Al-Abduljabbar, the President’s Deputy for Airports; Mohammed Abed, the President’s Deputy for Projects; Sulaiman Al-Bassam, Head of Information Technology at GACA; and Wael Al-Sarhan, the President’s Deputy for Corporate Communications and Marketing.
 
Mr. Al-Hamdan began by unveiling the Authority’s new identity that will help it gain more recognition, after which he talked about GACA’s achievements, projects and latest initiatives, pointing out the Authority is poised to achieve its objectives and contribute to Kingdom’s overall economic outlook.
 
These initiatives came as a result of the keenness of the Kingdom’s leadership to provide every possible aspect of support to this sector, which plays a vital role in the nation’s economic and social development.
 
Also, the initiatives will greatly enhance the services offered to citizens and residents by opening up more opportunities for the private sector to participate strategically in the aviation industry in coming years.
 
Mr. Al-Hamdan said that GACA’s new emblem encapsulates the ambitions the Authority seeks to achieve, foremost of which is to transform and transcend the Kingdom’s air transport industry.
 
He also gave a presentation that reviewed the history and achievements of civil aviation in the Kingdom.
 
For his contribution to the conference, Dr. Suqair outlined GACA’s privatization strategy, saying that it aims to turn all of the Kingdom’s airports, as well as some of the Authority’s sectors, into fully owned subsidiaries, in accordance with a royal directive in this regard.
 
He added that the ultimate objectives of the privatization program are to improve the quality of the services offered to travelers and to reward employees at airports and other privatized sectors according to their performance.
 
Also, airport staff would become primarily service providers, and the sectors to be privatized would become profit centers that cover their running costs while turning a profit for the benefit of the Saudi state.
 
Dr. Suqair pointed out that all employees in the sectors to be privatized would be retained, which will reflect positively on growth as a result of switching to operation on a commercial basis, which, in turn, would require even more staff, opening up job opportunities to qualified young Saudis.
 
He went on to say that that there will be three ways in which the Authority would privatize itself: first, using King Khalid International Airport as an example, a given airport will be converted into its own, standalone subsidiary corporation, with the hiring of international qualified personnel for top management to build capabilities among their Saudi staff. An airport would have a board of directors, just like a regular company.
 
The second way to privatize is based on operation and maintenance. Using the new King Abdulaziz International Airport as an example, Dr. Suqair said that the airport’s staff would be transferred over to the investor, while the Authority will fund the construction of the project in exchange for a portion of the revenue.
 
The third way would be to use the Build-Transfer-Operate business model: as in Madinah’s Prince Mohammed Bin Abdulaziz Airport, the airport’s staff would be moved over to the investor, who funds and builds the airport and shares the revenue generated by the finished, operational airport with GACA.
 
Dr. Suqair detailed the expected timeline of the privatization process, saying that it would start with the privatization of King Khalid International Airport in the first quarter of 2016, followed by the privatization of the Authority’s Air Navigation Sector in the second quarter. The third quarter will see the privatization of the Information Technology Sector, with King Abdulaziz International Airport and King Fahd International Airport to follow in the second and third quarters of 2017.
 
Other regional and domestic airports will be privatized in groups throughout the period between 2018 and 2020.
 
Regarding the method GACA is using to privatize, Dr. Suqair said that the process started off with setting up a holding company named “Saudi Civil Aviation Holdings,” which would own, run and integrate the privatized units in ways that ensure the maximization of revenue, the minimization of expenditures, and the improvement of services, while maintaining complete and total compliance with safety and security standards and civil aviation codes.
 
Adding his comments, Captain Abdulhakim Badr, the President’s Deputy for Security, Safety and Air Transport, outlined the tasks his sector is responsible for, such as planning and executing safety, security, and air transport measures, ensuring compliance with all codes, regulations, laws and directives in place at any given time, maintaining compliance with any and all directives pertaining to civil aviation safety and security, preparing and deploying guidebooks and whitepapers that clarify how to implement and comply with aviation codes and regulations, working towards creating a healthy, competitive investment environment to precipitate improvements in services, and enabling the air transport sector to contribute to the Kingdom’s national product by creating jobs and localizing investments.
 
Captain Badr said that one of GACA’s upcoming projects and initiatives is the “Oboor” program, which will connect the Authority with other government agencies electronically to automate clearances and permits issued to transit flights and aircraft that request to land in any of the Kingdom’s airports. The program is currently undergoing testing with a select group of clients prior to its deployment.
 
Another project currently underway is that of economic codes and regulations for air transport in the Kingdom, currently pending the board’s approval.
 
A third project pertains to technical aviation codes and regulations, expected to be implemented in the first quarter of 2016.
 
The fourth initiative will see the launch of the Watani hub program. Captain Badr said that Hail Airport had been chosen as the Kingdom’s first hub, which will serve all airports in the Kingdom’s north.
 
He added that Nesma Airlines, a low-cost airline, has been granted a license to operate, and is in the process of obtaining technical certification by the end of the first quarter of 2016.
 
GACA’s fifth initiative concerns the automation of all of the air transport sector’s operations. The system is currently in the internal testing phase, prior to it being linked to the Authority’s online gateway, which will enable pilots, engineers, and airlines to process all of their procedures through the GACA website.
 
The sixth project is to issue a license to a second ground services provider to operate at the Kingdom’s airport. Captain Badr said that Swiss Port, a company that specializes in ground services operating out of Switzerland, has been granted a license, and will commence operations by the end of the first quarter of 2016.
 
Captain Badr stated that a number of agreements between the Kingdom and other countries have been signed or amended as part of the Authority’s strategy of opening up the Kingdom’s airspace.
 
Concerning new and future projects, Captain Badr said that the prospect of a hub dedicated specifically to air freight is being studied, and the second phase of the Watani project, which is to see the creation of a second hub to serve airports in the Kingdom’s southern regions, is underway.
 
Also, a global company is being recruited to handle the coordination of time slots at high-traffic airports.
 
In addition, there is the Saudi Safety Program (SSP,) as well as an awareness program on implementing economic regulations in air transport, the completion of the deregulation of the air transport market, and the licensing of companies in various fields to eliminate monopolies in services such as supplies and catering, freight, fixed bases, and private aviation.
 
Tariq Al-Abduljabbar, the President’s Deputy for Airports, outlined his sector’s role in overseeing the Kingdom’s 27 airports, as well as supervising development programs at all of these airports, improving services offered to travelers and pilgrims, and enhancing air traffic in the Kingdom’s air transport market.
 
He said that a number of projects and initiatives are currently underway at airports.
 
Phase one of King Abdulaziz International Airport, which is in its final stages, will see the airport’s capacity boosted to 30 million travelers annually. The private aviation section at the airport is being developed, and the Terminal 5 project will add capacity of 12 million travelers, in addition to the 17.5 million facilitated by Terminals 3 and 4. Also, facilities for the private sector are being developed.
 
He also pointed out that the freight village at King Fahd International Airport is being built.
 
Tariq Al-Abduljabbar said that domestic airports have undergone a series of development projects, such as new terminals at Abha Airport that boosted its capacity to five million travelers per annum, new terminals at Jizan’s King Abdullah Airport with capacity for 3.6 million travelers a year, increasing capacity at Qassim’s Prince Nayef Bin Abdulaziz Airport to three million, new terminals at Arar Airport with capacity for one million, and reworking Ahsa Airport to raise its capacity to 850 travelers a year.
 
He added that new business-class lounges are being built at KAIA’s Terminal 5 and at Prince Mohammed Bin Abdulaziz Airport in Madinah.
 
He went on to outline the most important upcoming projects, such as phase two of KAIA, which will boost its capacity by 15 million travelers per year, and phase three, which will further boost that capacity by 35 million.
 
At KKIA, terminals 1, 2 and 6, as well as the airport’s residential facilities, will be reworked, while areas will be built up for light industries, private aviation, and an airport city.
 
Also, new terminals will be built at the airports of Hail, Qurayyat, Jawf, and Rafha, while Taif International Airport will be redeveloped to accommodate Haj and Umrah pilgrims.
 
Mohammed Abed, the President’s Deputy for Projects, said that in addition to building Terminal 5 at KAIA and expanding Terminals 3 and 4, other development projects include the expansion of aircraft stand 6, developing and widening runways, aprons and stands (phase one,) developing aviation-side facilities, preparing blueprints for terminal connections and aircraft stands.
 
Sulaiman Al-Bassam, Head of Information Technology at GACA, outlined the Authority’s IT projects, such as comprehensive information and video conferencing projects, the geographical airport guide system, the customer relations system, and wireless networks at airports to activate the smart airport concept.