The Saudi Air Connectivity Program aims to bypass Middle East hubs with direct inbound traffic, according to the program’s CEO, Majid Khan.
“Saudi Arabia is a literally untouched wonder. If you see FlightRadar 24 and the traffic at our airports, they’re empty, but the market is there!”
In front of CONNECT delegates, Majid Khan, CEO of the Saudi Air Connectivity Program (ACP), was not only defining the potential for air traffic development, he was framing the challenge ahead of him as the country seeks to have an annual total of 300 million air passengers in 2030.
The ACP was established in 2021 as part of the Vision 2030 of Saudi Arabia by the country’s Ministry of Tourism. Khan was brought in to lead the project in January 2024 after four successful years as vice-president of aviation development at İGA İstanbul Airport.
“The ACP oversees the route development for the whole nation. We have 29 airports, with Jeddah and Riyadh being our two hubs,” Khan explains. And then we work very closely with our partners, that’s Visit Saudi, I mean that’s the airports, Kaka which is the regulator, bilaterals are very, very important. So our aim is actually to grow the traffic via our two hubs, Jeddah and Riyadh, and then grow the point-to- point potential to our secondary airports.
“Those of us who have worked in route development know that partnerships are very important. We have seen airports working on route development, the tourism organisations, then we have the Chambers of Commerce – all the stakeholders together.
Khan noted the heavy investment in new airport infrastructure around the kingdom, something he believes is needed. “Look at Riyadh, the capital city; we have population of 9 million people, but we had just 20 million passengers in 2023. Where I moved here from, Istanbul, we had 20 million people, but 77 million passengers just from Istanbul Airport. On top of that, you have Sabiha Gökçen Airport [18.5 million passengers in 2023] as well,” he explained.
In addition to increasing traffic in Riyadh, there are other cities with growth potential. “I must mention Jeddah,” Khan said. “The perception about Jeddah is that it’s purely an Umrah and Hajj market, but it’s a destination as well. Then we have Dammam in the eastern region. We had less than 8 million passengers in Dammam because Bahrain and Doha are literally next door, taking all the Saudi traffic. We reached 100 million passengers this year and our aim as part of the Vision 2030 is to reach 150 million inbound tourists.”
Picking up on the mention of Bahrain and Doha, Khan recognised the competition across the region. “All our traffic is currently driven through the big three GCC hubs at the moment. So we’re looking for ways to bypass those hubs and provide direct connectivity. True, direct connectivity is important. We have Riyadh Air coming up in 2025, which will be important. Saudia will move out of Riyadh and have their hub in Jeddah,” he remarked.
Khan noted that some airlines believe the ACP “is an ATM machine”, expecting substantial incentives to open routes. “That’s not actually the fact. We would like to make sure that airlines understand the market potential for each of our airports. Then we cooperate in terms of bilaterals with our airports, we work with the airlines to decrease the total cost of operation, and at the end, the incentive is one of the enablers. So we can help the airlines promote the route and cut the cost as well,” the CEO advised.
“We don’t believe in buying routes. We believe in long-term cooperation. We don’t have a stand-up package. It depends on the airline and on the route, on which type of passengers. Because we are under the Ministry of Tourism, inbound tourism is very important for us, so support can last from one year up to three years. The amount can go either for joint marketing or, for instance, when we talk about the low-cost carriers, promotion through their channels,” Khan emphasised.
“If it’s the flag carriers, the network carriers or the OTAs, we work very closely with their sales and marketing team. We don’t direct the airlines to follow what we want. Airlines know their business, we know our market, so it’s based on its mutual cooperation,” he concluded.
