Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, The Third Operating License

GACA, having indicated that the third AOC in the Kingdom will be offered to a foreign operator from the GCC, has short listed seven (7) out of the fourteen (14) proposals it has received earlier.

The seven finalists are:

Qatar Airways, Falcon Express Cargo Airlines, Nesma Holding Co, and the following consortia Bahrain Air - Saudia Private Aviation,  IDB - AlMasria Universal Airlines, Gulf Air - Abdel Hadi Al-Qahtani and Sons Co,, Chinese HNA Group (Hainan Airlines) - Saudi Mazaya Al Shabab Co.

It is expected that the winner of the air carrier license will be announced in September or October 2012, with a target for starting operations in the first quarter of 2013.

So far GACA is meeting its planned milestones (give or take a few months) and it will be interesting to see how this will pan out. 

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