The world's largest airport could be built by Saudi Arabia.
Plans to expand Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport have been announced by Saudi Arabia's prince. The airport is going to be bigger than the current one.
The airport will be able to accommodate 120 million travelers annually by the year 2030. and up to 185 million travelers annually by the year 2050. The airport is expected to handle up to 3.5 million tons of cargo by the year 50. Six parallel runways are expected to be featured at the airport.
The new airport can be seen in the images below. Some design elements should look familiar to you.
The expansion of the airport will be built by the Public Investment Fund. RIA is a new Riyadh-based airline that is expected to grow at a rate we have never seen before. Saudi Arabia wants to build its own version of Emirates in a quarter of the time it takes.
The airline would use Saudi Arabia as a transit point to travel between other countries. This project includes the construction of a new mega-airport.
Saudi Arabia is investing a lot of money in tourism, between this airport, a new mega-airline, and much more. Saudi Arabia seems to be committed to investing in this. It's not clear what a decade or two from now will be.
The bigger issue is how the country can convince people to go to Saudi Arabia. Travelers from many parts of the world would be hesitant to travel to Saudi Arabia due to its poor reputation.
While the country is willing to spend a lot of money on this, I don't think there is much focus on what will make people want to visit Saudi Arabia.
If the economic and political situation in the country changes to the point that this is no longer realistic, I want to know how long Saudi Arabia's focus remains unchanged.
The new airport is expected to be finished in 30 years. The Midfield Terminal was supposed to open a long time ago, but it hasn't opened yet. The government of Abu Dhabi gave up on the project at this point. I wonder if there will be a similar event in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia wants to build the biggest airport in the world in Riyadh. The new airport would be able to handle 120 million passengers a year by the year 2030. Saudi Arabia is expected to launch a mega-airline at this airport.
I'm curious to see how this plays out.
What do you think of the new airport?
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