King Khaled International Airport
Airport City Concept (Part of the Airport Master Plan Project)

The airport in Riyadh is located just outside the city. The airport has not fully utilised its commercial potential, and the challenge is to increase its attractiveness as a business location by creating an interaction between the city and the airport.

InterVISTAS and NACO provided an analysis of the airport's commercial development potential. A conceptual strategy plan, marketing strategy, airport city benchmark study, cluster development analysis and industry analysis were provided.

A financial analysis supported the commercial development recommendation: projection of aeronautical and non-aeronautical revenues, projection of operating cost, cash flow analysis and assessment of future funding requirements and financial viability.

To stimulate interaction between city and airport, it was decided to make use of the city's existing grid road system and extending it into the airport. Within this grid a finer and denser grid was developed to accommodate new facilities like retail, entertainment and IT & finance, adding value to both the airport and the city.

The borders of the airport city will interact with existing facilities like universities at the west side, residential facilities in the south and logistic centres in the east.

To deal with the accessibility of the airport a primary access road system was developed to ensure enough road capacity at any given time in the near and far future. The Riyadh airport city project is an ambitious project stimulating new market segments into Riyadh by closing the gap between the airport and the city.