Saudi Arabia: Air Traffic rises by 43%; marine by 7%

Riyadh: The General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) on Monday announced that in 2021, Saudi Arabia saw its air traffic increase by 43 percent while its marine traffic went up by seven percent.

GASTAT’s announcement came during its disclosure of the results of air and sea traffic statistics. Airports in Saudi Arabia experience a total of 497 incoming and outgoing international and domestic flights in 2021. There was an increase of 43 percent as compared to 2020.

49 million passengers were transported by air in 2021, with an increase of 30 percent. The GASTAT added that the share of Saudi aviation amounted close to 40 million passengers or 81.6 percent. With respect to international flights arriving and departing from Saudi, the GASTAT recorded an increase of 20 percent, while the domestic flights amounted to 3,71,000 flights, with an increase of 53 percent.

The authority further revealed that King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh ranked first with 33 percent of the number of flights, followed by King Abdulaziz Airport in Jeddah with 26 percent, and King Fahd International Airport in Dammam in third with 13 percent on the list of airports with the highest number of flights, Saudi Gazette reported.

Addressing the freight movement, the authority said that airfreight movement recorded an increase of 501,000 tons, with an increase of 53 percent, of which the domestic freight amounted to about 79,000 tons, an increase of 54 percent.

GASTAT further revealed that 3,60,000 tons were shipped via Saudi airlines, while 2,20,000 tons were shipped via foreign airlines.