Riyadh's 40-million-passenger mega-terminal will transform Saudi travel

The 40-million-passenger terminal from 2029 will cut Riyadh delays for visitors

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Dubai:  King Salman International Airport will start construction next year on a terminal handling 40 million passengers annually, set to deliver families, tourists and business flyers quicker access to Saudi attractions from 2029. Acting CEO Marco Mejia told Al Eqtisadiah the new terminal forms part of Riyadh’s ambitious strategy to transform the King Salman Airport into one of the world’s largest aviation hubs. The megaproject will eventually replace King Khalid International Airport

Current travellers face familiar bottlenecks at King Khalid, where peak seasons for hajj, Formula E and Diriyah events stretch waits. The new setup will target 120 million passengers by 2030 through six runways, with Riyadh Air basing there for direct flights from Europe, Asia and the Americas. Families will find family zones and cultural touches that speed up transits while showcasing Saudi heritage.

Direct flights will cut layover hassles

Tourists planning Mecca trips or Riyadh Season outings will skip Dubai-style connections once Riyadh Air launches routes. Mejia confirmed the next phase of development will also include new aircraft hangars and key airside infrastructure, with construction scheduled to start in 2026. The airport aims to begin operations in 2029.

Pilgrims and leisure groups will move through AI-powered security from partnerships signed at the Partners Forum with SDAIA, TASAMA, Elm and Cluster2. The 57 square kilometre aerotropolis will integrate hotels, retail and shuttles on-site, letting visitors hit the ground running for Expo 2030 or World Cup 2034 crowds.

Green design will ease family journeys

The LEED Platinum facility will run on renewables, offering plane-spotting glass walls, greenery and seamless loops connecting terminals. Business flyers attending Future Investment Initiative will benefit from cargo ramps processing 3.5 million tons yearly by 2050, while solo explorers enjoy efficient baggage handling.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced the masterplan in 2022 to grow Riyadh's population to 15-20 million by 2030, creating 103,000 jobs and adding SAR 27 billion to non-oil GDP annually. 

Nivetha Dayanand is Assistant Business Editor at Gulf News, covering aviation, financial markets and commodities. A business and financial journalist with a strong interest in multimedia storytelling, she regularly takes complex financial and economic subjects beyond the written word, producing explainer videos that make them easier for a wider audience to understand. Nivetha has interviewed senior policymakers, business leaders and global financial figures both on and off camera. Her past guests include UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud, a member of the House of Saud and the founder and CEO of KBW Ventures, Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund and Indian ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and N. Chandrababu Naidu. She has also hosted and moderated panels, conferences and awards shows, bringing her newsroom experience to live conversations on business, finance and the economy. An Erasmus Mundus journalism alum, Nivetha is drawn to stories that affect people directly and to reporting that gives a platform to voices that might otherwise go unheard. She was among the first journalists to speak to Petrofac employees in the UAE about unpaid salaries, broke the news of the planned demolition of Dubai’s well-known “Toyota Building”, and helped set the record straight on widely circulated claims that a giant replica of the Moon was coming to Dubai. More recently, her exclusive interview with EDGE Group CEO Hamad Al Marar revealed how the UAE-based defence group deployed its systems along the country’s shore border and established a geofence around the UAE within 48 hours of the February 28 escalation. Prior to joining Gulf News, Nivetha worked at ITP Media, where she helped launch Finance Middle East, a new publication covering the region’s financial sector. Her role spanned reporting and editing, video production, interviews and events. Across print, digital, and video, she focuses on finding the people behind business stories and explaining why those stories matter to the audience reading or watching them.

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