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RIYADH: Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport secured first place in ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ in November 2022 according to a monthly report issued by the General Authority of Civil Aviation.  

GACA’s reports evaluate the Kingdom’s airports’ commitments to implementing strategic directions aimed at improving passenger experience and services at ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ's airports as part of the national strategy to upgrade and develop the aviation sector. 

The monthly report evaluates the country’s airports’ commitment to implementing improvements based on fourteen performance criteria including time spent in travel procedures, passports, customs areas and disability services. 

For GACA's appraisal purposes, the Kingdom's airports are split into five categories. The first category includes international airports with annual passenger numbers exceeding 15 million.  

The second category houses international airports with annual passenger numbers of between 5-15 million.

International airports with annual passenger numbers of between two and five million fall into the third category, while the fourth category is for international airports that receive less than two million passengers annually.  The fifth category is reserved for domestic airports.

King Khalid International Airport, part of the first category scored a commitment rating of 73 percent, followed by Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport which came in with a commitment rate of 64 percent.

In the second category, Dammam’s King Fahd International Airport ranked first with a commitment rate of 91 percent while Madinah’s Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz International Airport came second with a commitment of 82 percent.   

In the third category, Abha International Airport ranked first with a commitment rate of 100 percent followed by King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Airport in Jizan with an 88 percent commitment rate. 

Al-Jouf Airport came in first place in the fourth category, also with 100 percent commitment rate.  

In the fifth category, Gurayat Airport was in first place mainly driven by its competitive total average waiting times for the departure and arrival flight which outperformed all competing airports. 

¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ's aviation sector is thriving, with a report released in October by the World Tourism Organization listing ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ as top of the G20 countries for the flow rating of international tourists in the first seven months of 2022.

The report, released during the G20 tourism ministers’ meeting held in Bali, Indonesia, did not detail the exact number of travelers who visited the Kingdom, but claimed the sector saw a growth rate of 121 percent in the first half of 2022. 

During the event ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ’s tourism minister Ahmed Al-Khateeb said the surge in tourist inflow aligns with the Kingdom’s economic diversification policies and aims to increase tourism’s contribution to the country’s gross domestic product, as outlined in Vision 2030, the Saudi Press Agency reported. 

Calling ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ one of the fastest growing markets for tourism, Al-Khateeb said the Kingdom’s tourism sector is accelerating at a rate of 14 percent compared to the pre-coronavirus pandemic period.