SAUDI ARABIA. Riyadh Airports Company (RAC), operator of King Khalid International Airport (KKIA), has brought management of car parking at its international terminals in-house from this month. The concession had previously been managed by a third party operator from January 2017.
RAC said the international terminals are now aligned to the business model for the domestic terminal (Terminal 5) which came in-house in March 2019.
That change, it noted, allowed RAC to drive incremental sales of +14% pre-pandemic and grow net income substantially. Terminal 5 car parking has continued to drive sales significantly above passenger growth as the recovery has accelerated.
Riyadh Airports Company has increased its control of commercial operations at King Khalid International Airport by bringing car parking operations for international terminals in-house
RAC Commercial Group Acting VP Abdulaziz Al-Asaker commented: “We have had great success since bringing parking in-house in Terminal 5. After careful study, we are confident similar additional growth in income can be delivered in international parking, as well as expansion of, and improvements to, the service offered to our passengers and airport users.”
He added: “Our management and new parking operations team took control at 11.59 on 31 July and I am grateful to them for the excellent work they delivered during the seamless transition.”
This news comes on the back of further excellent sales growth at KKIA in July, where duty free grew by +68% over July 2019 (as reported) and food & beverage revenues by +31%. Total parking sales, meanwhile, were +19% ahead of 2019’s figure.
Passenger numbers at KKIA for first half of 2022 recovered to 90% of 2019 levels, with momentum continuing to build as the year progresses, RAC observed.
