Civil Aviation: More than (91) million passengers crossed the Kingdom's airports in 2017

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Riyadh, March 25, 2018
Airports in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia registered a significant growth in the number of passengers in 2017.  According to statistics issue by the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), the number of passengers have reached (91.8) million on (741.293) flights.  The Kingdom twenty-seven airports have witnessed a growth in passenger’s traffic by (7.7%) compared to 2016 and there was an increase in flights rate by (4.6%).
 
The Kingdom’s international airports (King Khalid International Airport (KKIA) in Riyadh, King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA) in Jeddah, King Fahad International Airport (KFIA) in Dammam, Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Madinah and Al Taif International Airport) have witnessed a significant increase in passenger traffic in 2017.  The number of flights at all previously mentioned international airports have reached 593.866.
 
Domestic airports have also witnessed a qualitative increase in the number of passengers and flights.   This following several initiatives launched by GACA, which included the national hub project that aims to link all of the Kingdom’s airports to each other.  This in turn have contributed to the provision of a number of extra flights and have addressed the problem of lack of seats and rarity of flights to some destinations.  The number of passengers traveling through domestic airports in 2017 have reached (13.775) million, on (147,427) flights.
 
On his part, H.E. Mr. Abdul Hakim Al Timimi, President of GACA expressed his great thanks and gratitude to the Custodian of the Two Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, the Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister for their great support to the programs and initiatives that GACA undertook.  The kind of support that greatly influenced the development of the air transport system in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
 
Mr. Al Tamimi stressed that GACA is working on developing its airports network to accommodate the growing demand and the increase in the number of passengers in various airport throughout the Kingdom.  All in an effort to achieve the aspirations of the country’s leadership in developing the infrastructure of the civil aviation sector in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.  Also to raise the level of contribution of the aviation sector in the development process of the national economy.  He went on to say that the growth in passengers number during the year 2017 in many of the Kingdom’s airports and  through its airspace is consistent with the development of the air transport sector and comes in line with the economic growth witnessed by the Kingdom.
 
He went on to say that the air transport industry plays a vital role in the national economy of countries and directly affects the progress of civilization and prosperity.  He also mentioned the great initiatives that GACA has made to connect different parts of the Kingdom to each other.  This have contributed directly in an increase in seat capacity and have addressed the shortage of seats and flights to some destinations.
 
Al Tamimi added, “That there are many programs launched by GACA that contributed directly to the development of air transport services in the Kingdom, in order to cope with the steady growth in air traffic and the growing demand for travel in many of our airports.  Some of these programs include subsidizing ticket prices on low traffic destinations, which help in creating flights on these low traffic routes.  This in addition to the national program for hub airports that GACA implemented, such as Hail airport that serve as a hub airport for the Northern region and Abha airport which serves as a hub airport for the southern region.  This program have directly contributed to the achievement of a large increase in passengers and in the number of flights, since its inception”.