Terminal 5 at King Khalid International Airport

The new Terminal 5 project at King Khalid International Airport (KKIA) required an aircraft apron to be developed in order to provide parking for aircraft close to, and connected with the terminal.

  • King Khalid International Airport
  • Fjori Ltd; Robert Bird Group; PLP Architecture
  • Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 2012
  • Apron capacity analysis
  • Stand planning
  • Terminal/gate integration
  • Apron pavement engineering
  • Apron drainage engineering
  • Apron services advisory
  • Airfield safeguarding
  • Boarding bridge integration
  • A Multiple Aircraft Ramp System (MARS) was proposed in order to provide flexibility of future use.
  • Stand capacity/demand was based upon forecast arrival-departure curve analysis and optimal placement of different coded aircraft in order to obtain a rapid selection of options and yet ensure robust safeguarding for future demand.
  • Maximised use of services mounted on the passenger boarding bridges, and where these were not provided, adoption of mobile servicing units in order to optimise costs and operational expenditure.
  • Engineering concept for stands took into account local environmental aspects and the need to construct concrete within very high temperatures.
  • The new terminal incorporated 10 widebody domestic and international aircraft gates (20 Code C when in MARS configuration).
  • Stands included FGPU, PCA, VDGS, AGL, fire and fuel hydrant networks.

The design requirement was for a minimum provision of stand space based on aircraft codes, representing different categories of aircraft size. The requirement was also for at least 50% of the provided stands to be ‘contact’ stands. These stands were equipped so that aircraft became physically connected to the terminal departure gate. The overall requirement for the apron was that it should comply with ICAO Annex 14 requirements, thus ensuring the safe and efficient operation of aircraft on the apron.

Passenger boarding bridge gradients were integrated with aircraft still heights for multiple scenarios, allowing the passenger terminal floor levels to be fixed. Pathplanner Gate+ software is utilised extensively by the Company to facilitate this process.

Pavement and drainage designs took into account the hot environment and the propensity for wind-blown sands.

The designs also took into account the requirements of numerous airport stakeholders including the airport operational team, rescue and fire-fighting, security, health and safety, asset managers, and the engineering and development teams at the airport.