It's no secret that Saudi Arabia's aviation sector is witnessing rapid growth

It's no secret that Saudi Arabia's aviation sector is witnessing rapid growth. KSA's Vision 2030 has sparked a socioeconomic transformation and the aviation sector hopes to ride the wave with the Saudi Aviation Strategy being an enabler.

A shallow dive into the Kingdom's current airport landscape in this edition of “Aviation in Saudi: Past, Present, and Future."

KSA is home to 28 airports with scheduled commercial operations, with about 90% of the population living within a two-hour drive from an airport.

For ease of classification, all airports with international operations have been classified as International, while the rest have been classified as Domestic.

In 2019, JED, RUH, DMM and MED handled about 85% of the total passenger traffic, while the other 23 airports handled roughly 15%.

Air traffic in the Kingdom grew at a CAGR of about 10% between 2010 and 2019.

A significant development in the airport space that warrants a deep dive is the corporatization of the Kingdom's airports. The civil aviation regulator GACA is no longer an operator and is now solely a regulator, separating the regulatory mandate from an operational role. More on this next week.

(Views my own; happy to amend inaccuracies, if any)

GACA - General Authority of Civil Aviation - Saudi Arabia MATARAT Holding | مطارات القابضة

#vision2030 #saudiaviationstrategy

P.S. Links to the other pieces in this series:

1. The genesis of aviation in Saudi Arabia (1/2): https://bit.ly/3PSME7E
2. The genesis of aviation in Saudi Arabia (2/2): https://bit.ly/3QabMIk
3. Inception of GCC flag carries: https://bit.ly/46qwA48