Already home to the world’s largest airport – King Fahd International (DMM) – Saudi Arabia is now planning on building another of the world’s biggest airports in its capital, Riyadh. Named after 86-year-old King Salman, The King Salman International Airport will sprawl over a vast 57 square miles and is designed by architects Foster + Partners, who have already dubbed it an aerotropolis.
The recently unveiled plans show that it is due to be built on the site of Riyadh’s current airport, named after King Khalid, with no less than six parallel runways. It is planned to have the capacity to serve 120 million passengers by 2030, with an expected rise to 185 million by 2050.
On top of this, it will handle up to 3.5 million tons of cargo annually and be equipped with more than 4.5 square miles of retail outlets, residential and recreational facilities, and logistics space. If you compare this to the current largest airport, King Fahd, which only has two runways and barely exceeds more than nine million in passenger traffic a year, you get a picture of just how big this new airport will be.
King Fahd is located 25 km from the city of Dammam (250 miles northeast of Riyadh) and can be quite inconvenient to get to, which is why the footfall is lower than what you may expect. The new airport, in comparison, will be built in the capital, making it much more accessible for tourists and locals alike. Its construction is part of a plan to make Saudi Arabia a leader in the Middle Eastern tourism industry, with the new airport supposedly helping Riyadh become a global center of creativity and innovation.
Whilst it has always been a popular destination for religious pilgrims, for many, Saudi Arabia is not the first choice on their bucket list of holiday destinations. The country is a sovereign Arab Islamic state with strict laws and regulations on many aspects of life, from a ban on drinking alcohol and playing casino games to strict laws against homosexuality and sexual relations outside marriage. However, the country is investing huge amounts of money in tourism – from this airport, a new mega-airline, and the Red Sea Development Project, to the Neom megacity – in a big drive to help promote itself to a wider variety of tourists.
As well as boosting the tourism industry, the new airport is expected to bring in SAR 27 billion annually (approximately $7 billion USD) for the country, part of the kingdom’s efforts to diversify its economy away from petrodollars. It will be owned by Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi’s sovereign wealth fund, and chaired by the crown prince. It hopes to create over 100,000 direct and indirect jobs, in line with Saudi Arabia’s vision to transform Riyadh into one of the top ten city economies in the world, and to support its growing population to 15-20 million people by 2030.
The design of the new King Salman airport will take into consideration Riyadh’s identity and the Saudi culture. It hopes to be as sustainable as an aviation centre can get, with renewable energy and a LEED Platinum certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) with green initiatives in the plans. The airport is designed to have a feeling of being outside while inside, with lots of glass walls connecting people inside the terminal to the great outdoors.
Saudi Arabia seems to be on a mission to increase its standing as a tourist destination and transit centre, becoming a strong contender to business and tourism hub Dubai in the UAE. However, only time will tell if this new airport brings everything Saudi Arabia hopes for.
