RIYADH — Under the patronage of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, Minister of Transport and Logistic Services Eng. Saleh Al-Jasser on Monday inaugurated the Future Aviation Forum, which is organized by General Authority for Civil Aviation over three days at King Abdulaziz International Conference Center in Riyadh.

The forum is considered a qualitative and unique international event in the civil aviation sector for providing an opportunity to exchange knowledge and ideas and discuss the best experiences and practices in developing resources and capacity.

The event will witness the signing of over 50 agreements and memorandums of understanding, in addition to launching several important policies and strategies for the civil aviation sector, and signing a big number of partnerships between the public and private sectors.

A total of 60 countries are participating in the forum with over 2,000 participants and more than 4,000 people who registered in the forum’s events.

The forum focuses on three main aspects of innovation, growth and sustainability, which are the main and effective aspects of the civil aviation sector.

Eng. Al-Jasser, during his opening speech, stressed that Saudi Arabia seeks to enhance its investments in the transport and logistics sector by more than $100 billion, transport 300 million passengers and five million tons of goods, and connect with 250 destinations around the world by the end of the current decade.

He added that it is scheduled to launch aviation companies with the best services among global aviation companies and to develop airport facilities through two headquarters based in Riyadh and Jeddah.

The minister noted that there are many opportunities for the private sector to realize our ambitions, pointing out that the ministry has changed more than 25 airports into holding companies to be ready for privatization, in addition to approving hundreds of applications for airplanes and opening new destinations for several countries.

Through a visual presentation, the minister reviewed aviation services and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s openness to the world and reviewed promising opportunities for the international aviation sector, where the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is connected with 250 global destinations with three times the number of passengers and five times the volume of goods, expressing hope for Saudi Arabia to become the number one at the level of the Middle East by 2030.

For his part, President of General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al-Duailej stressed that Saudi Arabia sees it is time to put a limit to the economic hardships facing the international aviation sector.

In his speech, he reiterated the importance of joint work to face future crises, noting that the only way to realize this is through permanent cooperation that can enable us collectively to respond to any future epidemic and its impacts on our businesses.

The president noted that the global economy relies on itself in the international and local aviation industry, adding that the industry, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, has offered $1 trillion of economic activity.

He also pointed out that the authority, in cooperation with leading industrial authorities across the world, sought to realize the harmonious air travel policy required for the industry’s operation in times of future health emergencies in various fields, including: coordinating reporting systems for all countries; establishing the best digital communication systems in its category to enable all aviation operators and governments to communicate effectively at the real time regarding issues related to developments in the health emergencies; putting proper global administration and coordination systems that can enable flexibility when necessary; and ensuring the establishment of health compliance mechanisms.

Al-Duailej noted that the harmonious air travel policy will grant our industries and passengers the decisive ability to develop, and it is a policy that will save our industries billions of dollars in future crises, stressing that Saudi Arabia is strongly proud of work that has been achieved in preparing the policy, which embodies our commitment and enthusiasm to play a leading role in the future development of our industries.

The sessions of the first day saw the participation of Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Minister of Energy; Prince Turki Bin Talal, Governor of Asir Region; several senior officials and ministers of transport, heads of civil aviation authorities, and ambassadors of Arab and non-Arab countries. — SPA