MAHB not bidding for Jeddah airport contract

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) has dropped plans to bid for a contract to operate and manage the new terminal at Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA) in Jeddah.
Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Aziz Kaprawi told SunBiz yesterday that MAHB did not submit a bid for the contract.
It is understood that the airport operator decided to focus on its operations at Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SGIA) after a failed attempt to overthrow Turkey’s elected government on July 15. The failed coup followed an attack on Istanbul’s Atatürk International Airport just weeks before.
Aziz said MAHB “put on hold” its decision on whether to participate in the KAIA project.
MAHB was one of the four potential bidders shortlisted for the contract to operate and manage the new terminal, which is expected to be completed by the middle of 2017.
Aziz had told theSun in March that the Saudi authorities invited MAHB to participate in the bidding exercise based on the airport operator’s good track record in managing international airports.
MAHB was tipped as a frontrunner for the job, due to its extensive experience in managing huge volumes of Muslim air travellers compared with the three other bidders from Singapore, France and Turkey.
According to Aziz, the bidding exercise was supposed to be completed in July this year. It is not known whether the three other bidders had submitted their bids.
To date, the Saudi authorities have not made any announcement on the bidding exercise.
Aziz said MAHB has also put on hold its decision to bid for a job at Taif Airport’s new terminal, following its decision to withdraw from the bidding exercise for the KAIA new terminal job.
The deputy minister had said that MAHB was invited to bid for the job as operator of Taif Airport’s new terminal, following the Saudi authorities’ decision to convert the airport into the secondary gateway to cater to Muslim travellers during the Haj season.
According to financial news portal Argaam.com, Turkey’s TAV Airport, France’s VINCI Construction and MAHB were the bidders for the Taif Airport job, which includes the design, operation and construction of Taif International Airport under a full private-public partnership model.
MAHB did not respond to queries from SunBiz as at press time.