Saudi airports’ passenger traffic rises to 62M in H1 2024

The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said that Saudi Arabia’s airports received 62 million passengers in the first half of 2024, a rise of 17% year-on-year (YoY).

In a statement today, July 11, GACA said the number of flights increased by 12% to 446,000, with the volume of air freight rising by 41% YoY to 606,000 tons in the same period.

Passenger Traffic in Saudi Airports (H1 2024)
	H1 2024	YoY Change
No. of Passengers (mln)	62	17 %
No. Of flights (‘000)	446	12 %
Air freight (‘000 tons)	606	41 %

The following table shows the number of flights and passengers since 2019:

Number of flights and passengers since 2019
Year	Flights (‘000)	No. Of Passengers (mln)
2019	750	103
2020	347	37
2021	497	49
2022	701	88
2023	815	112
H1 2024	446	62

According to GACA, King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA) reported an increase in the number of passengers and flights, with the passenger growth rate reaching 16%, totaling 24 million passengers. The number of flights stood at 148,000 in the first half of 2024. King Khalid International Airport came in the second place with a 21% growth rate and 17.7 million passengers.

The number of passengers at the two airports accounted for 41% of the total passengers in the Kingdom, while the number of flights accounted for 63% of the total flights, as shown in the following table:

No. of Passengers and Flights in Saudi Airports (H1 2024)
		H1 2024	YoY Change
KAIA	Passengers (mln)	24.0	16 %
KAIA	Flights (‘000)	148.0	13 %
King Khalid International Airport	Passengers (mln)	17.7	21 %
King Khalid International Airport	Flights (‘000)	132.0	15 %
King Fahd International Airport,	Passengers (mln)	6.0	15 %
King Fahd International Airport,	Flights (‘000)	45.0	15 %
Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz International Airport	Passengers (mln)	5.6	20 %
Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz International Airport	Flights (‘000)	39.0	22 %
Other	Passengers (mln)	8.8	16 %
Other	Flights (‘000)	83.0	11 %