Saudi Arabia Plans To Upgrade Airports And Transport 330m Air Passengers
Saudi Arabia will upgrade and develop its airports and airlines as it aims to become a major transport and logistics hub, according to an aviation boss in the Kingdom.
President of the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), Abdulaziz Al Duailej, said that the Saudi Aviation Strategy supports economic development in the Kingdom and provides promising opportunities for investors around the world, based on the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 for the Kingdom to become a leading regional hub and a global logistics platform linking three continents.
Ambitious plans will see Saudi airports target 330m air passengers by 2030 and attract $100bn of investments.
This statement came during his participation in a ministerial session held on the sidelines of the (Wings India 2024) exhibition conference, organised by the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation in cooperation with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), and with the participation of several international leaders and heads of civil aviation organizations and bodies.
The event is scheduled to take place from January 18 to 21, 2024, at Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad.
Al Duailej said: “Civil aviation plays a major role in supporting economic growth and achieving sustainable development in Saudi Arabia.
“The Kingdom has come a long way in redrawing the future of the civil aviation sector, emanating from the Saudi Vision 2030 and the Saudi Aviation Strategy, which seek to emphasise the Kingdom’s role as a leader in the field of civil aviation in the Middle East, by attracting investments worth $100bn and creating an exceptional travel experience for more than 330m passengers annually by 2030.
“We aim for only 10 per cent of these 330m passengers to be transit passengers, which emphasises our focus on sustainable and integrated growth.”
معالي رئيس الهيئة العامة لـ #الطيران_المدني يؤكد خلال مشاركته في الجلسة الوزارية التي عقدت على هامش أعمال معرض ومؤتمر #أجنحة_الهند_2024 أن الإستراتيجية الوطنية لقطاع الطيران تدعم التنمية الاقتصادية في المملكة وتوفر فرصًا واعدة للمستثمرين في جميع أنحاء العالم. pic.twitter.com/aZtfiqET0A
— هيئة الطيران المدني (@ksagaca) January 18, 2024
He highlighted that the strategy includes a comprehensive plan to upgrade and develop airports, airlines, aircraft, and facilities, including shipping and logistics services, to increase the scope of the Kingdom’s air connectivity to more than 250 destinations worldwide through 29 airports, adding that the strategy also includes establishing an airport network with unique capabilities and high efficiency, led by two global connectivity centres in Riyadh and Jeddah.
He said: “Through the Saudi Aviation Strategy, the Kingdom hopes to bring about a major qualitative shift in air freight and logistics services to increase the capacity of air freight from 0.8m tons to 4.5m tons by 2030, as this represents one of the most ambitious initiatives to attract global air carriers, logistics service providers and multinational companies to the Kingdom”.
Al Duailej explained that the Kingdom is aware of the enormous potential and promising opportunities that the Indian civil aviation market provides and is, therefore, keen to participate and benefit from linking India to the world by increasing the volume of air links between India and the Kingdom, thus provide a strong basis for developing relations between the two countries in the future.
He underlined the fact that the Kingdom is keen to strengthen its relations with its partners in the global civil aviation sector, including India, as statistics and figures reveal the importance of the main role it plays as the third-largest domestic aviation market in terms of size in the sector.
It is expected to become the third largest market generally by 2026.
GACA President invited the participants in the Wings India 2024 exhibition to attend the Future of Aviation Conference, which will be held from May 20 to 22, 2024, in Riyadh, stressing that the Kingdom seeks, through the conference, to contribute effectively to the future of civil aviation, and to confirm it is fully prepared to cooperate and work jointly with all its international partners for a more prosperous, growing and sustainable sector.
