Libanet, an aviation service provider, signed a three year contract with Saudia Ground Services Company (SGS), a Jeddah-based ground handler and sole operator at all KSA airports. Libanet will provide a wide scope of maintenance services to all carriers in the four largest airports in Saudi Arabia: Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, and Medina.

The contract commits Libanet to perform services to more than 320,000 aircrafts, annually.

The operations would be launched in Riyadh’s King Khaled Airport (KKIA), effective January 2015. It will cover 55 of the airport’s commercial carriers, or the equivalent of 100,000 flights a year. “This agreement is in line with Libanet’s vision and 2011 strategic decision to expand into the Saudi market,” said Tony Saade, CEO of Libanet.

The agreement comes at a key time for Saudi Arabia, whose inbound flights have soared, in line with General Authorities of Civil Aviation’s (GACA) long-term strategy to build and renovate its domestic and international hubs to accommodate a projected three-year traffic flow of 57 million passengers.

Libanet conducted trial night tests, last July, at Jeddah’s King Abdel-Aziz Airport (KAAA) mainly for transiting flights of Saudi Airlines, as well as Turkish Airlines, Pakistan International Airways, and Sudan Airways.

Libanet currently employs 1,300 and would need to hire around 1,200 additional staffers to execute this agreement. It has over 17 years of experience in the aviation services industry, provided to over 40 airline companies and four international airports in the MENA region. Last year, Libanet won a contract to provide airline services to NasAir at both the Jeddah and Riyadh airports. In 2012, Libanet was re-selected as the preferred bidder for facilities management in the new Queen Alia International Airport in Amman, after servicing the old terminal for three years.

Aircraft services means cabin management, which includes interior cabin cleaning, exterior aircraft washing, in addition to a new service Libanet is developing: Lavatory service and potable water services to short grounding time flights. Aircraft services may range from a ten-minute transit cleaning to a full eight-hour deep cleaning performed mostly in the hangar and where all inside aircraft details are meticulously attended to.