Another huge airport coming in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – living up to the hype

Air transportation in the Middle East has been developing rapidly and the Gulf area has become the epicentre of activity, its main airports being leaders in facilitating one-change travel globally, while aiding the brisk development of tourism at home.

Saudi Arabia tends to be overlooked, but is making great strides to improve its domestic air network. Even more so its international one, which it has so far done partly through co-operation with the private sector.

The country already has some of the biggest and most expensive airports under its belt.

Now it looks set to get another one: the King Salman airport at Riyadh, one that will be built around the existing King Khalid Airport, and an essential part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's 'Vision 2030'.

It is a giant project, costing close to USD30 billion, but there are warning signs about overdevelopment, both at home and abroad.

In Saudi Arabia the country is at a crossroads as it adapts to the paradigm of a world with less reliance on oil, while the US looks set to gain the ascendancy in that field, and while it reassesses its relationship with Iran.

Internationally, in the UAE, the Dubai World Central (Al Maktoum) Airport already stands as a memorial to overestimation of demand - no airport in the world is going to be handling over 200 million passengers a year anytime soon, and such an operation would simply be too big anyway.

While King Salman airport is on a smaller scale, it is still vast, and the Saudi authorities need to be absolutely certain that the planned growth will be sustained.

If there is to be any private sector participation they will definitely need to be convinced of that.