International travel from the Kingdom’s domestic airports has grown by 51.5 percent in 2015. The growth has led to the increased flight numbers, which have reached 26,361 to international destinations during the year, compared with 17,405 in the previous year.
Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz Airport in Qasim, one of the domestic airports in Saudi Arabia, recorded the highest growth increase in international flights by 55.5 percent to 7,418, during the peak time. The rate of increase also holds true for the other domestic airports.
The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) statistics show a growth of 40.2 percent in passenger traffic on international flights from domestic airports, where the passenger numbers have reached 2,913,194 in 2015, compared with 2,077,659 in 2014.
Meanwhile, the GACA has successfully introduced international operations at 10 of its regional airports. From here, passengers can fly directly to the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Egypt, Yemen and Turkey. Such passengers have contributed to the traffic growth for domestic airports.
These developments have, in turn, resulted in a qualitative jump in the services offered to the traveling public throughout the Kingdom, and helped save time and effort for them in their travel to the neighboring countries.
Source: Arab News