One year ago the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) announced it had chosen Abha International Airport to become a hub serving the southern region of Saudi Arabia in an aim to contribute to strengthening economic activities. For this project Egis and its subsidiary Projacs are bringing their know-how in airport engineering around different areas of expertise.
Located in the South West of the Arabian Peninsula, Abha is a regional Airport servicing the capital of Asir Province in Saudi Arabia. The region has recently witnessed a strong growth in air traffic with new international flights to main neighbouring cities like Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam, Cairo, Doha or Dubai. Passengers increased by nearly 20% between 2014 and 2015, hence exceeding the average traffic expansion for the Kingdom’s domestic airports.
At most of the 27 domestic and regional airports in Saudi Arabia – for example Qassim, Jizan or Arar – a series of development projects are planned or under way. The construction of new terminals at Abha Airport has already boosted its capacity to five million passengers per annum. Additional extension projects are to be achieved and Egis will provide its wide-range expertise in airport engineering.
Egis is currently developing the master plan in order to anticipate and prepare for the airport’s long-term growth over 20 years. The Group is also providing design management and construction management services for the new terminal building as well as the necessary annex buildings and infrastructure. The duration of Egis’ services is 30 months and will require the mobilisation of a team of specialised experts on the construction site in Abha.
Prior to the above mentioned services, Egis has also provided value engineering which looked at the previous design of Abha Airport in all its aspects with a focus on reducing life cycle costs of infrastructure while optimising quality and functional performance.
Abha Airport project is a concrete illustration of the success of the recent cooperation between the teams of Egis, the international consultancy and engineering group including to the airport industry, and the teams of Projacs, a Middle East leader in project management.
In 2015, Egis acquired Projacs and strengthened the Group’s activities and presence in this geographic area. Today 1,200 employees on 14 different offices throughout the region work for the two entities and combine their complementary expertise in order to support the development of airports, either regional aerodromes or major international hubs.