King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah achieved a new historical milestone, recording its highest ever weekly passenger traffic, welcoming and seeing off more than 1.28 million passengers. This record reflects the rapid growth of the aviation sector in Saudi Arabia and underscores the airport's pivotal role as the Kingdom's main gateway and a global logistics hub.
A historic achievement reflecting rapid growth
This recently recorded figure marks a significant milestone for the airport, demonstrating its exceptional operational capacity and the efficiency of its procedures in handling high passenger flows. This achievement is the result of integrated efforts by Jeddah Airports Company (JEDCO) in collaboration with all government and operational partners, aimed at providing a seamless and comfortable travel experience for passengers, even during peak times.
General context and strategic importance of the airport
King Abdulaziz International Airport has always held immense strategic importance for the Kingdom. It is not merely an air transit point, but the primary gateway to the Two Holy Mosques, receiving millions of pilgrims and Umrah performers annually from around the world. Over the decades, the airport has undergone continuous development and expansion to meet increasing demand, most notably the opening of the new Terminal 1, an architectural and engineering masterpiece that has directly contributed to significantly increasing capacity and dramatically improving service quality.
Expected impact within Saudi Vision 2030
This achievement is closely linked to the goals of Saudi Vision 2030, which aims to diversify the national economy and strengthen non-oil sectors, particularly tourism and air transport. The National Aviation Strategy targets increasing passenger traffic to 330 million passengers annually by 2030 and establishing the Kingdom as a global logistics hub connecting three continents. King Abdulaziz International Airport's record performance is a significant step towards achieving these ambitious goals, demonstrating the readiness of the infrastructure to accommodate future growth in travel and tourism
On both regional and international levels, this figure reinforces Jeddah’s position as a competitive aviation hub in the region, and increases the airport’s attractiveness to global airlines to operate more direct flights, thus expanding the network of destinations connected to the Kingdom and supporting trade and business.
