The new King Abdulaziz International Airport (Terminal 1) was officially inaugurated on September 24 at a ceremony organised by the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), said a report.

The airport terminal, sprawling over a total area of 810,000-sq-m, was opened by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, said a report in Saudi Gazette.

With an annual capacity to hold 30 million passengers in the first phase, the new airport is one of the largest in the Middle East, it said.

The new terminal was soft-opened in May 2018 with the landing of a domestic flight from Al-Qurayyat and has been operational since August 9, operating Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) international flights to Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Muscat airports, bringing the total destinations to 24. Of these, three are international destinations and 21 are domestic.

Located 19 km north of the Jeddah city, the airport is regarded as a world-class iconic and high-tech gateway to the Two Holy Mosques. The KAIA, one of the largest aviation hubs in the world, is a smart, environment-friendly, unique landmark of the Arab and Islamic architecture, the report said.

The airport project includes a three-storey hotel having 120 rooms, 81 prayer areas, a sophisticated system for handling passengers’ luggage with a total length of conveyor belts reaching 34 km, green areas totalling 18,000-sq-m inside the terminals.

The designs and technologies of the new airport are derived from the kingdom’s environment in general and the environment of Historical Jeddah, in particular.

The total area of the new airport project is approximately 105-sq-km, the report said.