Riyadh airport's privatization put on hold: report

Saudi Arabia has put the privatization plans for King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh on hold, Reuters reported.

“Right now they are looking at the plan again because it is starting to look more like a concession rather than privatization,” a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Another source told Reuters that the privatization was on hold, without elaborating.

In July, the news agency reported that Goldman Sachs was hired by the government to manage Saudi Civil Aviation Holding Company's (SAVC) plans to sell a minority stake in the airport.

In December, SAVC chairman Faisal Hamad Al-Sugair said the goal was for airports in the Kingdom to be “corporatized”, or turned into private companies, in 2018, and that privatization would follow later.

Saudi Arabia is planning to privatize several state-run entities as part of broader fiscal reforms under Vision 2030.