Officials announced that Terminal 5, currently under construction at King Khalid International Airport (KKIA) in Riyadh, is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2015. This announcement followed a visit by the President of the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), Sulaiman bin Abdullah Al-Hamdan, to the site to inspect progress and the status of work.

The Terminal 5 project was undertaken to divert passenger traffic from Terminal 3 during the expansion and development of Terminals 3 and 4. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has committed to a program aimed at building and developing 20 airports at a cost of 40 billion Saudi riyals ($10.65 billion) to help accommodate the rapidly growing aviation industry.

A statement said, “Construction and development work on Terminal 5 is expected to be completed by the end of 2015, at which point the terminal’s operational readiness will be tested, and it will begin operations and the transition to full use.”

Terminal 5 was built on an area of 100,000 square meters, designed to accommodate passengers from eight jumbo jets or 16 medium-sized aircraft. The terminal’s annual capacity is approximately 12 million passengers.

Terminal 5 features 60 baggage check-in counters—20 of which are self-service—30 elevators, 19 escalators, 6 moving walkways, as well as first-class and business-class lounges covering an area of 2,138 square meters.

Al-Hamdan stated that 65 percent of the construction and development work on the terminal project has been completed, adding, ”The project was implemented to fulfill the government’s vision, and it is also part of the General Authority of Civil Aviation’s strategies to develop the aviation sector in the Kingdom.”

The contract for the construction and development of Terminal 5 was awarded to the Turkish construction company TAV and the Saudi Al-Araab Contracting Company in July 2013.