Saudi Gazette report

MAKKAH — The volume of passenger traffic in Saudi Arabia's airports has reached about 92 million during 2017, which is an increase of 7.7 percent over the previous year, Makkah daily reported on Monday quoting the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA).

The authority said the passengers arrived and left aboard 741,000 flights, which is an increase of 4.6 percent over their number in 2016.

It said about 78 million passengers arrived and departed via the country's five major airports, which are King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, Prince Muhammad Bin Abdul Aziz International Airport in Madinah and Taif International Airport. The five airports served a total of 594,000 flights during the year.

According to GACA, about 14 million passengers traveled through the Kingdom's domestic airports on board 147,000 flights.

The authority's chairman Abdul Hakeem Al-Tamimi said GACA is expanding the airport network to meet the increasing demand and to cater to the needs of the rising number of passengers.

"We are building a solid infrastructure for the aviation sector to cope up with the Kingdom's 2030 Vision and increase the contribution of the sector to the national economy," he said.