Number of Passengers Carried by Airlines in 2019 (in Millions)

In 2019, SAUDIA transported nearly 37 million passengers, not far from British Airways 44.5 million passengers. The difference between these airlines of course, is that SAUDIA has  barely scratched the surface of global brand recognition and does little to no “super-connector” flights between the East and West, that have helped build-up passenger traffic on airlines such as British Airways, Emirates and Qatar Airways.

Though SAUDIA does work in the transit market today, the primary focus for SAUDIA has been, up until recently, to focus on providing domestic and international origin-to-destination (O&D) flights, largely serving the religious tourism clientele.

In 2019 alone, SAUDIA was the main carrier entrusted with transporting the 19 million Hajj and Umrah pilgrims into and out of the Kingdom. Those 19 million passengers alone would be enough to surge SAUDIA’s passenger capacity beyond that of the likes of Singapore Airlines, Swiss Air or Etihad.