Jeddah, May 5 (Arab News) : The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) is currently implementing a plan to construct exclusive buildings to defuse explosives at domestic airports, an official said.

“Approval has been given to construct a building to defuse explosives at the Abha airport. This facility will serve as a model to all other domestic airports in the Kingdom,” said Hassan bin Hareeb, senior architect at GACA’s project engineering department for domestic airports, Asharq Al-Awsat daily reported yesterday.

“The building is part of the airport security. Whenever any suspicious looking suitcase is spotted, it will be removed with the help of a special device to a building that has chambers to inspect and deal with such items,” Hareeb said, adding that the domestic airports in Al-Jouf and Najran had already adopted the system.

He added, however, that the facility at the Abha airport is currently in the designing stage, and within six months other formalities such as bidding and selection of contractors would be completed.

He said all new airports would have the facility to deal with explosives, while the system would be added to old airports.

In a related development, Muhammad Abid, supervisor general of development projects at King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA) in Jeddah said GACA is currently studying the construction of shelters for passengers arriving on suspicious flights as part of the airport’s development project. The facility will also be equipped to deal with dangerous situations, he said.

“Currently, KAIA has an isolated bay to receive unsafe flights. When a suspicious plane arrives, the passengers are disembarked and taken to that place, which is away from the airport buildings,” Abid said.