At the Routes Asia 2024 Summit in Langkawi,Malaysia, Preeti Puja, Associate Editor, Aviation World, interacted with Mr. Rashed Alshammari, Vice President, Commercial, Air Connectivity Program, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on various development initiatives under the Kingdom’s “Vision 2030’. Excerpts…

What are your expectations from Routes Asia 2024?
The expectation from Routes Asia by exhibiting is to unlock the new destinations from Asia and other continent and to have their activity in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

The KSA is working on much extensive airport expansion plans? Could you please elaborate on this?
We are there committed to growth of KSA. We oversee enhancing route development in the KSA in a holistic way. We take care and look after enhancing the inbound tourism to enable the tourism sector as per the strategic target and objective set by ‘Vision 2030’ and also we look after executing the Aviation strategy. So, we are the bridge between tourism and aviation sector. When it comes to expansion of airports, yes we look after it like for ex. Riyadh Airport. Our target is to have more than 120 million passengers by 2030. As part of the strategic program, we are targeting to have 150 million inbound tourists in the KSA by enabling the tourism sector.

When it comes to enabling the aviation sector, we are targeting to unlock more than 250 destinations and having more than 330 million passenger traffic within the KSA by 2030. We are seeing this as a realistic target and we are executing and progressing positively towards opening more destinations. Especially, Saudi Arabia is a untouched market and we wanted to have more new destination and grow our tourism capacity.

There has been lot of focus on making tech enabled airports with all modern amenities. Kindly brief a bit on this about the concept.
The tech is the key enabler to promote a seamless passenger experience. Today, when we want to expand our inbound tourism, we have new destination, that requires the high tech technology. The seamless travel experience from the frisk point for the passengers for the airport, than moving from airport to the other terminal experience and then to the city. That takes key enabler to attract and monitor the high quality experience and for each inbound passenger or tourist to Saudi Arabia.

KSA has also modified its various rules for expats and other visitors Is it in line of increasing tourism footfall and bringing more investment?
Today Saudi Arabia, as one of the tourism initiative, we have introduced the e-Visa for specific country. It just matter of one click and within 90 seconds you receive your e-Visa. Plus we are welcoming our neighborhood who is living in nearby countries to come and explore Saudi Arabia. So this is we look after enhancing the full experience for certain citizens, expats and even the tourist who is visiting Saudi Arabia.

Riyadh Air is making good vibes across the world? What are the operational plans of the airlines and which sector it will cater to?
Well, Riyadh Air can answer this question on their behalf. In general, I believe Riyadh Air would be key enabler to contribute in our strategic target while bringing new destination, adding new capacity and bringing more tourist to the KSA.

How do you see India as your partner?
India is key partner for us. Indian carriers are expanding their direct flights to many different destinations of Saudi Arabia. It’s one of the pillar and enabler for the tourism activity in the KSA.