Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH — Flights from Jeddah to all domestic destinations and back will be operated through the city's new airport starting mid 2019, the Arabic daily Al-Madina reported quoting the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA).

Jeddah's new King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA) started experimental operations in June 2018.

GACA said it was not an unusual practice to operate the airport partially. "This is rather an international practice," it said in a statement.

The airport is designed to serve about 30 million passengers annually. It will be the busiest airport in Saudi Arabia and one of the busiest in the region.

The airport has five lounges for the first class and business class passengers. Two of them will serve international flights, two domestic passengers and the fifth transit passengers.

The airport has service tunnels with a total length of 55 kilometers and a 36-km network of roads. A service passage connects all loading centers.

There are two integrated data centers connected to a fiber optics network.

The main lounge has 10 gates for the entry of passengers and six islands to complete their travel procedures, in addition to a special gate for the first and business class passengers.

The lounge has 220 check-in counters to serve domestic and international flights of all airlines, in addition to 80 self-service stations.

The airport has a commercial area of 27,987 square meters — 12,000 square meters inside the domestic lounge and 16,000 square meters in the international lounge.

The airport's parking area can accommodate more than 21,000 cars at a time.