Riyadh Airports Company (RAC), which operates King Khalid Airport in Riyadh has seen passenger traffic soar at the Saudi Arabia gateway with passenger numbers rebounding to pre-COVID-19 levels and commercial revenues in March topping those recorded in the same month in 2019.
March this year was the most successful month of duty-free sales ever recorded at the air transport hub with duty-free sales showing a growth rate of 62% compared to March 2019 (and a growth of 243% compared to March 2021). Other areas that also performed strongly were food and beverage (F&B), which was up 12%, retail and services up 14% and car parking up by 29% in March 2022 compared to March 2019.
CEO of RAC, Egn. Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Maghlouth highlighted that these figures illustrate the underlying growth in the region’s aviation sector. He was joined by Ayman Aboabah, VP Operations who 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.”
With the regional travel market showing strong signs of rebounding, RAC’s Acting VP Commercial also expressed his optimism for the future saying: “We are confident these results are just the tip of the iceberg, and that we will see new records throughout the year.”
