SATS Saudi Arabia has announced that it won a 25-year cargo terminal concession at the King Khalid International Airport (KKIA) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

This will be the second cargo operation in Saudi Arabia for SATS, after its first win in King Fahd International Airport in Dammam in 2016.

The cargo handler said the construction of the SATS Cargo Terminal in KKIA will take over two phases, with the first phase expected to be completed by mid-2022.

Upon completion, the cargo terminal will have the capacity to handle up to 600,000 tonnes of cargo annually — fitted with a purpose-built cold-chain facility for the special handling of temperature-sensitive perishables and a dedicated lane for pharmaceutical products.

“KKIA serves Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia, and handles close to 40% of air cargo volume in the Kingdom. Connected to our stations in Dammam and Oman, and our extensive Asian network, KKIA will extend SATS’ network of quality cargo corridors to offer our customers greater connectivity and quality assurance, while supporting Saudi Arabia’s rapidly growing cargo market and logistics infrastructure,” said Alex Hungate, president and CEO of SATS.

This establishes a quality cargo corridor in the Middle East linking Oman, Damman and Riyadh.

SATS operates 10 cargo terminals in Asia in Beijing, Dammam, Ho Chi Minh, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Oman and Singapore.

In line with SATS’ vision to feed and connect Asia, the company enables greater traceability, efficiency and speed through digitalising and linking its cargo operations, it added.