Jeddah Airport to fly high with new revamp

May 3, 2015

Jeddah, May 3: The 30-year-old King Abdul Aziz International Airport (KAIA) is undergoing a massive overhaul that would further entrench its leading status in the region and the world.

KAIA

The first phase saw two main contracts signed on November 13, 2010, to expand the facility as the main gateway to Jeddah and the Two Holy Mosques. Jeddah, of course, is an economic powerhouse and one of the most important cities in the Middle East.

The KAIA is currently enjoying substantial growth in air traffic. It is already the Kingdom’s busiest airport, serving approximately 41 percent of all passengers.

The parameters for the expansion project include catering for an expected rise in air traffic, supporting economic developments in Makkah and other regions, accommodating the new generation of jumbo aircraft such as the A380 and becoming a regional travel hub.

The government also plans to ensure that there are opportunities for private sector companies, and the provision of services for travelers that would rank with leading airports around the globe.

The project consists of three phases, but most of the basic infrastructure construction will take place over the first phase, with the capacity increased to handle 30 million passengers. After completion of the second phase, it will be able to handle 50 million passengers, and 80 million following the third phase.

The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) has said that the project is going well and nearly 70 percent complete. The entire project is expected to be ready by the middle of 2016. This would be followed immediately by a commissioning phase, or operational testing, to ensure that the airport’s systems are functioning optimally.

There are about 110 companies active on the KAIA project, incorporating around 26,000 engineers and workers, with approximately 2,600 pieces of equipment and machinery.

The significant progress on the expansion has been achieved because of the close cooperation between the Ministry of Transport, Makkah emirate and companies currently involved in building bridges, roads and the Haramain High-Speed Railway.

The construction at the airport has taken place with minimal obstruction of facilities and services for millions of passengers, particularly during holidays and other peak times.

For example, the project’s contractors have not used any of the roads leading to the terminals. And to avoid affecting the movement of traffic around the airport, 30 central concrete mixers have been set up inside the project site.

Most of the new airport systems and facilities have either been completed or are in the final stages. For instance, the testing of the baggage handling system, which is computerized and delivers luggage from check-in counters to aircraft in just 9 minutes without human intervention, has already commenced.

The system is one of the world’s most advanced and will comprise 31-km-long conveyor belts, 62 self check-in machines, 46 control units, 230 standard check-in counters, 11 bulky baggage processing counters, 16 baggage claim belts, and 16 transit baggage processing counters.

The first phase facilities include a terminals complex over 720,000 square meters, allowing all airlines to operate under one roof; 46 gates for international and domestic flights; and 94 air bridges for serving aircraft of different sizes.

There will be five lounges for first class and business class passengers — two for departing international flights and two for departing domestic flights — while the fifth is for other passengers proceeding on international and domestic flights.

There will be a 136-meter-high control tower, one of the tallest in the world, and a 27,987-square-meter area inside the terminal complex for commercial investment.

The contractors will also complete a mosque for about 3,000 people, with an outdoor prayer yard over 2,450 square meters and an upper level that has the capacity for 700 females.

Other facilities include 220 passenger-processing counters and 80 self-service machines. There will also be an automatic train system for international flight passengers inside the terminals complex.

There will be aprons and taxiways over 2.1 million square meters, air conditioning systems, fire-extinguishing facilities, sanitation and rainwater drainage networks.

Also under construction is a four-level short-term car park for 8,200 vehicles equipped with advanced electronic systems to enable drivers to locate their cars. There are also long-term car parks for 4,356 vehicles, a parking area for 48 buses, a section for 651 taxis, a space for 1,243 rental cars, and 9,123 parking spaces for airport employees.

Other facilities include a 4-star, 120-room hotel for transit passengers, a firefighting and rescue station, two integrated information centers connected with fiber optic cables, a 9,327-meter-long service tunnel and a 46-km-long service corridor linking all load centers.

There will also be an aircraft fuel farm with tanks and a distribution network, ground services and maintenance buildings, a nursery for airport landscaping works, and a 36.5-km road network, including several tunnels and bridges.

The new airport will be able to serve 70 aircraft at the same time. There will be temporary aircraft parking spaces located around the terminal complex to accommodate 28 aircraft. Fuel and water will be supplied through underground pipes.

A feature of the new airport is the architecture, which combines elements of Arab and Islamic designs. There will be green spaces around and inside the terminal complex. There is currently construction taking place on a park over 18,000 square meters, with a 14-meter-high and 10-meter-wide aquarium.

Some of the environment-friendly features at the airport include the use of treated wastewater for irrigation and toilets, energy saving lighting in the airport terminals and airfield instead of halogen to reduce thermal emissions, with a 20-year lifespan.

The new KAIA project has also been an opportunity for the government to train new Saudi graduate engineers across all engineering disciplines. The aim is to skill them for their chosen jobs.

The current terminals in the south and north will gradually be phased out. The South Terminal, or Saudi Airlines Terminal, will be transformed into a cargo facility.

The Haj and Umrah terminals complex will remain in place because upgrades were completed in 2009. This means the complex will be able to handle the predicted rise in passengers over the next 20 years.

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News Network
November 13,2024

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Beirut: The Israeli army on Tuesday continued to launch attacks against civilians in Lebanon, targeting them in several areas without prior evacuation warnings.

However, 13 airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs in the space of only three hours were preceded by evacuation warnings.

The attacks caused no injuries but resulted in widespread destruction of residential buildings and commercial, medical and educational centers.

The airstrikes in southern Lebanon and Bekaa region, reaching Akkar in Lebanon’s far north, erased any hope of a near-term ceasefire settlement.

The strikes were accompanied by an announcement on Israel’s Channel 14 that “the Israeli army has expanded its operations in southern Lebanon to areas it had not reached since the beginning of the ground operation.”

About 50 days have passed since Israel intensified its hostile operations in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah. The death toll from these confrontations and attacks has passed 3,200, with more than 14,000 wounded.

For the first time, an airstrike targeted a mountainous area between Baalchmay and Aabadiyeh on the road leading to Aley, destroying a building housing displaced people.

The mayor of Baalchmay, Adham Al-Danaf, confirmed that “the airstrike targeted a residential building in the Dhour Aabadiyeh area.”

The initial toll from the Ministry of Health showed “five people killed and two injured.”

The raids that targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs for the first time in the morning, unlike nightly raids before, caused huge destruction. Those who evacuated their homes after Israeli warnings, used their phones to record the collapse of empty buildings in Sfeir, Haret Hreik, Bir Al-Abed, Mrayjeh, Laylaki and Hadath.

Israeli warplanes also targeted Tyre, where a strike on a building killed three people and injured many others, while a raid on Tefahta killed a man identified as Kifah Khalil and his family.

Attacks were widespread, with Yater and Zebqine subject to artillery shelling, a civilian being killed in Hermel, and further attacks on Bouday and an area between the towns of Srifa and Arsoun.

A raid on the town of Siddiqin killed two people and injured several others, while an attack on the Mechref farm led to one fatality and multiple injuries.

The search for those missing after an Israeli raid on the town of Ain Yaacoub in Akkar, in the northernmost part of Lebanon, continued until dawn.

During the operation, 14 bodies were retrieved, identified as those of residents displaced from the town of Arabsalim in the Iqlim Al-Tuffah area of the south, along with members of a Syrian family, a mother and three of her children. Additionally, there were 10 people in critical condition.

The targeted residence belongs to a Lebanese citizen, Hussein Hashim, who is reported to be a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.

An airstrike on the town of Saksakiyeh in the Sidon region on Monday night resulted in yet another tragedy.

It appeared that the intended target was the Shoumer family, who just days before lost Hussein Amin Shoumer and his two sisters in a drone strike near Al-Awali River.

Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued additional evacuation warnings for towns in the southern region along the Litani River, which, according to estimates from the mayors, are currently 90 percent uninhabited.

In the meantime, Hezbollah announced its continued efforts to “combat the intrusions of Israeli forces and to strike military installations and towns in the north.”

Hezbollah said in a statement that it confronted “an Israeli Hermes 450 drone in the airspace of Nabatieh and forced it to leave Lebanese airspace.”

The party also announced that it targeted “Kfar Blum settlement with a rocket salvo.”

On the Israeli side, air raid sirens sounded in areas of Upper and Western Galilee and in the town of Kiryat Shmona and its surroundings.

The Israeli army confirmed that “a drone exploded in Nesher, east of Haifa, without activating the air raid sirens,” and that “a drone launched from Lebanon crashed into a school in Gesher HaZiv, north of Nahariya.”

Israel’s Channel 13 reported the Israeli military’s assessment regarding Hezbollah’s military strength, claiming that the group currently possesses approximately 100 precision missiles, thousands of artillery shells, and hundreds of rockets. Additionally, it was highlighted that “there are around 200 Lebanese towns that remain unvisited.”

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News Network
November 14,2024

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The UN special rapporteur for Palestine has slammed Israel’s parliament for passing a law authorizing the detention of Palestinian children, who are “tormented often beyond the breaking point” in Israeli custody.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in a Thursday post on X, characterized the experiences of Palestinian minors in Israeli detention as extreme and often inhumane.

The UN expert highlighted the grave impact of this policy, noting that up to 700 Palestinian minors are taken into custody each year, a practice she described as part of an unlawful occupation that views these children as potential threats.

Albanese said Palestinian minors in Israeli custody are “tormented often beyond the breaking point” and that “generations of Palestinians will carry the scars and trauma from the Israeli mass incarceration system.”

She further criticized the international community for its inaction, suggesting that ongoing diplomatic efforts, which often rely on the idea of resuming negotiations for peace, have contributed to normalizing such human rights violations against Palestinian children and the broader population.

The comments by Albanese came in response to Israel’s parliament (Knesset) passing a law on November 7 that authorizes the detention of Palestinian children under the age of 14 for “terrorism or terrorist activities.”

Under the legislation, a temporary five-year measure, once the individuals turn 14, they will be transferred to adult prison to continue serving their sentences.

Additionally, the law allows for a three-year clause that enables courts to incarcerate minors in adult prisons for up to 10 days if they are considered dangerous. Courts have the authority to extend this duration if necessary, according to the Knesset.

The legislation underscores a shift in the treatment of minors and raises alarms among human rights advocates regarding the legal and ethical ramifications of detaining children and the conditions under which they may be held.

Thousands of Palestinians, including hundreds of children and women, are currently in Israeli jails—around one-third without charge or trial. Also, an unknown number are arbitrarily held following a wave of arrests in the wake of the regime's genocidal war on Gaza.

Since the onset of the Gaza war, the Israeli regime, under the supervision of extremist minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, has turned prisons and detention centers into “death chambers,” the ministry of detainees and ex-detainees’ affairs in Gaza says.

Violence, extreme hunger, humiliation, and other forms of abuse of Palestinian prisoners have been normalized across Israel’s jail system, reports indicate.

Over 270 Palestinian minors are being detained by Israeli authorities, in violation of UN resolutions and international treaties that forbid the incarceration of children, as reported by Palestinian rights organizations.

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News Network
November 10,2024

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The media office in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli regime has been waging a genocidal war since last October, says as many as 188 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the onset of the brutal military onslaught.

The office provided the figure on Saturday, naming four journalists as the most recent victims of the onslaught.

It identified the foursome as Zahraa Mohammad Abu Sukheil, Ahmad Mohammad Abu Sukheil, Mustafa Khadr Bahar, and Abdel Rahman Khadr Bahar.

The office said it “strongly condemns the targeting, killing, and assassination of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation and holds it fully responsible for committing this heinous crime.”

“We call on the international community, international organizations, and those involved in journalistic work worldwide to take action against the occupation, pursue it in international courts for its ongoing crimes, and pressure it to halt the genocide and the targeted killings of Palestinian journalists,” it said.

Earlier in the day, the office said the Israeli regime had bombed the tents sheltering journalists and displaced persons at the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza for the ninth consecutive time.

The atrocity that claimed the lives of two people and injured 26 others came as part of “the genocidal crimes committed by the Israeli occupation army against hospitals, civilians, and displaced persons,” it said.

The media office held the regime and the United States, its biggest ally, as well as other countries aiding the genocide fully responsible for such systematic crimes.

At least 43,552 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and 102,765 others wounded since the launch of the war that followed a retaliatory operation by Gaza’s resistance groups.

The fatalities include 44 people, who were killed across the coastal sliver, in the most recent phase of the military onslaught.

As many as 24 of the victims were killed in the northern part of the territory, where the regime has markedly intensified its deadly attacks for weeks.

They included an eight-year-old child and a five-year-old one, who lost their lives after Israeli warplanes targeted a group of minors filling up jerry cans with water alongside their mother at the Jabalia Refugee camp.

Gaza’s heath ministry, meanwhile, said a number of victims remained under the rubble and in the streets following Israeli airstrikes, saying ambulances and civil defense teams could not reach them due to the sheer extent of the destruction caused by the raids and obstruction caused by the regime.

Also on Saturday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, a United Nations-backed assessment, warned that famine was looming in northern Gaza amid escalated Israeli aggression and the regime’s near-total siege of the targeted areas.

The alert from the Famine Review Committee warned of "an imminent and substantial likelihood of famine occurring, due to the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip."

On October 17, the body projected that the number of people in Gaza facing "catastrophic" food insecurity between November and April 2025 would reach 345,000, or 16 percent of the population.

The IPC report classified that figure as Phase 5 -- a situation when "starvation, death, destitution, and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels are evident."

The Israeli military, however, questioned the report's credibility.

"To date, all assessments by the IPC have proven incorrect and inconsistent with the situation on the ground," the army said in a statement, denouncing "partial, biased data and superficial sources with vested interests."

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