The President of the General Authority of Civil Aviation, Abdulaziz Al-Duailej, said that the civil aviation and air transport sector’s contribution to the Kingdom’s GDP is expected to increase to more than 280 billion riyals by 2030, compared to about 80 billion riyals in 2018.
He stressed that the objectives of the civil aviation sector strategy by 2030 is that the civil aviation sector in the Kingdom will be the first in the Middle East, and reach the fifth rank globally in air connectivity for passengers by reaching more than 250 global destinations compared to about 99 destinations in 2019.
Al Duailej said: We aim for the number of passengers to reach 330 million passengers annually, compared to 103 million passengers in 2019, in addition to reaching the first rank in air freight in the region and increasing the capacity to 4.5 million tons, compared to about 800,000 tons in 2019. Noting the importance of the sector in terms of providing many direct and indirect jobs in the sector by 2030.
Al Duailej referred to the launch of the 10,000 Emiratisation jobs initiative, reaching 50% of them by the end of 2021 in professions (airport operation and safety, fire and rescue, aviation security, airport operation services), in addition to qualifying and classifying 29 professions specialized in the air transport sector.
He drew attention to the 3,200 graduates of the Saudi Academy of Civil Aviation in various diploma programs at various airports in the Kingdom and allocated more than 38,000 training seats to various employees of the civil aviation system during the past five years.