MATARAT Holding Company announced that Saudi Arabia has won a bid to host a new office of Airports Council International (ACI) Asia-Pacific in Riyadh. The ACI office in the Kingdom will work closely with its headquarters in Hong Kong to efficiently serve member airports in the Middle East. This comes within efforts to enhance international cooperation with the ACI Asia-Pacific and to benefit hugely from expertise and capabilities in Airport development, operations according to the latest international standards. Abdulaziz Alduailej, General Authority of Civil Aviation President and MATARAT Chairman said: “Today’s announcement of a regional ACI headquarters in Riyadh reflects Saudi Arabia’s leadership on the world stage of global aviation, in line with Vision 2030 and the National Transport and Logistics Strategy. Building on the Kingdom’s successes at ICAO’s 41st Assembly, we look forward to contributing to the airport sector in partnership with ACI Asia, Pacific, and Middle East." Suliman Albassam, Acting CEO of MATARAT Holding Company, said: “We are pleased to host a new office of the ACI Asia, Pacific, and Middle East in Riyadh. This step comes in continuation of our efforts to achieve the objectives of the Vision 2030 by attracting international companies and institutions to set up their headquarters in Saudi Arabia,” and stressed that this will contribute to improving the passenger experience by replication of the global best practices. He added: “Hosting ACI’s sub-regional office will contribute to supporting international knowledge and expertise exchange which reflects positively on the development of airports with the latest technologies, and in line with highest international standards. This will help improve passenger experience and develop competencies of Saudi airports in crisis management.” “This step comes in line with the National Aviation strategy which seeks to chart the future of the sector to make Saudi Arabia the regional and global pioneer; to achieve the objectives of the Saudi Vision 2030,” Albassam added. Head-quartered in Hong Kong, ACI Asia-Pacific serves as the voice of 127 airport members, operating 618 airports across 46 countries in Asia-Pacific, and Middle East. ACI Asia-Pacific is the largest civil aviation market in the world in terms of traffic volumes. ACI Asia-Pacific represents the collective interests of airport members to promote professional excellence in airport management and operations. ACI Asia-Pacific mission is to advocate for policies and provide services that strengthen its members’ ability to serve their passengers, employees and stakeholders. It also promotes environmental best practices to minimise aviation’s impact on the environment and to recognise airport members who have outstanding accomplishments in their environmental projects. ACI Asia-Pacific also collaborates with other regional offices, including ACI Europe, ACI North America, ACI Africa, ACI Latin America and the ACI World. Founded in 1991 to cater to Asian airports, ACI Asia was merged with ACI Pacific in 2006 and renamed as ACI Asia-Pacific.