Saudi Arabia seeks Qassim airport PPP interest

10 February 2026

Saudi Arabia’s Civil Aviation Holding Company (Matarat), through the National Centre for Privatisation and PPP (NCP), has issued an expression of interest (EoI) for a tender to develop the Prince Naif Bin Abdulaziz International airport in the Qassim region.

The EoI notice was issued on 9 February, and companies have until 23 February to submit responses. 

The project scope includes the redevelopment of the passenger terminal as well as other associated facilities such as airside infrastructure, including runway, taxiways and aprons.

The project will be developed on a design, finance, construction, operations, maintenance and transfer basis.

The latest development follows Matarat Holding and NCP prequalifying five teams to bid for a contract to develop the new Taif international airport project in Mecca province in January.

According to local media reports, four consortiums and one standalone company have been prequalified to proceed to the next stage of the project.

The new Taif International airport will be located 21 kilometres southeast of the existing Taif airport, with a capacity to accommodate 2.5 million passengers by 2030.

The clients opted for a 30-year build-transfer-operate (BTO) contract model, including the construction period.

Previous tenders

The Taif, Hail and Qassim airport schemes were previously tendered and awarded as PPP projects using a BTO model.

Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (Gaca) awarded the contracts to develop four airport PPP projects to two separate consortiums in 2017.

A team of Tukey’s TAV Airports and the local Al-Rajhi Holding Group won the 30-year concession agreement to build, transfer and operate airport passenger terminals in Yanbu, Qassim and Hail.

A second team, comprising Lebanon’s Consolidated Contractors Company, Germany’s Munich Airport International and local firm Asyad Group, won the BTO contract to develop Taif International airport.

However, these projects stalled following the restructuring of the kingdom’s aviation sector.

Saudi Arabia has already privatised airports, including the $1.2bn Prince Mohammed Bin Abdulaziz International airport in Medina, which was developed as a PPP and opened in 2015.

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Yasir Iqbal
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