Tourism Breaking News
Riyadh Airports Company, the organization responsible for managing and operating King Khalid International Airport (KKIA) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has announced that passenger traffic has entirely rebounded to pre-COVID-19 levels and commercial revenues in March 2022 topped those recorded in March 2019. Specifically, duty-free sales at the KKIA climbed substantially in March 2022, with a growth rate of 62% compared to March 2019 (and a growth of 243% compared to March 2021). Overall, this year’s March was the most successful month of duty-free sales ever recorded by KKIA, and the month contained the new highest and second highest sales days recorded so far. Other categories also performed strongly with F&B up 12%, Retail and Services 14% and car parking up by 29% March 2022, all compared to March 2019.
Commenting on this milestone, the CEO of RAC, Eng. Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Maghlouth, said, “I am delighted with the robust performance and full recovery at KKIA. This illustrates the underlying growth which we will continue to build progressively, as we work toward KSA’s Aviation Strategy and Vision 2030”.
Adding to this, Ayman Aboabah, VP Operations said “The strength of passenger recovery in March is an excellent result, delivered as a product of our collective and coordinated efforts. We look forward to continuing to work closely with our stakeholders and partners, and build further on the excellent recovery as the year progresses”
Speaking on the tremendous rebound recorded at KKIA, Abdulaziz Al Asaker, Acting VP Commercial at RAC said, “At KKIA, we are thrilled with these tremendous results and thank the efforts of our staff, commercial partners, and customers in helping us generate these industry leading results. Now that we are finally starting to see the regional travel market rebound, we are confident that these results are just the tip of the iceberg, and that we will see new records throughout the year. We can now continue to focus our efforts on transforming KKIA into a leading airport capable of rivalling the best in the world.”
Riyadh Airports Company is currently under expansion, with the development of Terminals 3 and 4. The terminals have been designed to cater to the growing number of international events and activities planned for Riyadh as part of Saudi Arabia’s 2030 vision, which seeks to expand the Kingdom’s tourism, transport, and aviation sectors.
