MANAMA: The President of the General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) in Saudi Arabia has announced all airports in the Kingdom will be privatized.
“Air traffic is expected to continue to grow across the GCC by 4.8%, which means it will more than double by 2030. We will therefore see major investments made to increase capacity and improve service delivery over the coming years,” Jeff Youssef, Partner, Oliver Wyman Middle East, who recently co-authored a report called ‘Leveraging the Private Sector to Improve Airport Infrastructure,” said.
“Governments in the region will need to ensure money is continuously injected into their airports to achieve forecasted growth in the number of passengers.”
“The benefits of airport privatisation, if managed diligently, can be wide-ranging. Privatised airports generally record higher performance across customer satisfaction metrics when compared to their government-operated counterparts.”
“In most cases, airports operated by public entities do not focus on the customer experience. Privatisation can allow for better adjustments to market changes and will often provide more innovative solutions to customers, resulting in improved outcomes for all.”
