Saudi Arabia’s King Salman International Airport (KSIA) is being planned on an extraordinary scale—57 square kilometers, six runways, multiple terminals, and entire zones dedicated to retail, logistics, and even residential life. It’s bold. Ambitious. And it’s not alone. Dubai’s upcoming new airport is also setting out to be one of the largest in the world, with equally enormous passenger targets.
But here’s the question that needs to be asked:
Does building bigger actually lead to a better travel experience?
To answer that, we need to step back and ask what travelers truly need—and where they actually spend their time.
In most cases, the real airport experience doesn’t begin at the drop-off or security checkpoint. It begins once you’re through—the transit zone. That in-between space of waiting, wandering, preparing to go somewhere else. That’s where travelers spend most of their time. And that’s where their memories are made.
So when we talk about “size,” it’s not the airport’s overall footprint that matters most—it’s the scale and quality of its transit zone. Is it walkable? Can travelers find their gate without stress? Does the space feel intuitive and comfortable—or exhausting and impersonal?
This is why projects like KSIA—and Dubai’s new airport—raise valid concerns. When an airport stretches so wide that walking becomes impractical, when buggies or trains become a necessity just to get to your gate, something is lost. Movement becomes a burden. And in quieter hours, those massive halls can feel eerily empty. Ghostly. Lacking soul.
Urban design teaches us that density, not just scale, creates life. And it’s a lesson airport design must embrace.
Take the Dubai Mall. Yes, it’s enormous—but it works, to a point. While we know its layout could be better, it still manages to host over 100 million visitors a year. Why? Because the spaces allow for looping, pausing, wandering. There’s a human rhythm embedded within the scale. It’s not just big—it’s experientially dense.
Airports can and should do the same. They’re not just transit points. They’re emotional landscapes. Places of excitement, anxiety, joy, reflection. The way a space supports those moments matters more than how far it stretches.
So yes—scale is important. But only if it enhances the traveler’s experience. If not, it becomes just that: scale. Empty volume. Nothing more.
As we imagine the next generation of airports in the Gulf and beyond, the real question isn’t how big we can go.
It’s how human we can make it feel.
It’s not the form—it’s the context.
Go find out why.
Because a great airport doesn’t just move people.
It moves them in a way that feels meaningful.
Courtesy of Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia.
