Riyadh Airport reports full post-COVID recovery
Passenger traffic and duty free sales at King Khalid International Airport (KKIA) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia rebounded this March 2022 to pre-Covid levels, with a 62% growth rate registered in duty free sales compared to 2019, according to Riyadh Airports Company, the airport operator.
Duty free sales at KKIA climbed substantially in March 2022, with a growth rate of 62% compared to March 2019 and 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 Food & Beverage 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.”
Ayman Aboabah, VP Operations, added: “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 about the rebound recorded at KKIA, Abdulaziz Al Asaker, Acting VP Commercial at Riyadh Airports Company, 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 rivaling the best in the world.”
KKIA is being expanded with the development of Terminals 3 and 4. The terminals have been designed to cater to the growing number of international events planned for Riyadh as part of Saudi Arabia's 2030 vision, which seeks to expand the Kingdom’s tourism, transport and aviation sectors.
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