Vision 2030 has taken years in the planning and represents one of the most fascinating and expensive economic transformation projects in the world. The plan to turn an oil-dependent economy into a major service and tourism-based economy is visionary, exciting and hugely expensive, capturing the attention of airline and airport CEOs throughout the region.

Investing over 12.4 trillion Saudi Riyals (approx. US$3.3 trillion) the total project has three targets: to create an ambitious, vibrant, thriving society that through a series of transformational programs places Saudi Arabia as the key commercial and cultural center in the Middle East. It aims to eclipse anything yet seen in the United Arab Emirates, or more recently Qatar.

In Saudi Arabia, such ambition cannot be achieved without a dramatic change in the aviation market. Plans are already well developed to achieve those objectives with alignment to the larger infrastructure investment in major cities, in which projects at airports are just one element.

Vision 2030 has a target to reach 300 million air passengers by 2030, 100 million of whom will be tourists (however that classification is determined). This is an extremely ambitious target considering that the current estimated passengers (to/from Saudi Arabia) in 2023 is 107 million.

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