RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s airports recorded an 18 percent surge in the number of flights and passengers during the month of Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr holidays compared to the corresponding period last year. According to a statement released by the General Authority of Civil Aviation, the Kingdom’s airports registered more than 12.5 million passengers during this timeframe. Furthermore, the report indicated that airports in the Gulf nation handled more than 86,000 flights during the corresponding period. It also revealed that during the same period, Saudi airports handled 100 cargo flights. In terms of passengers per airport, King Abdulaziz International Airport was in the lead as it carried around 5.38 million travelers during the period mentioned above. King Khalid International Airport came next with 3.23 million passengers, then Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz International Airport with 1.04 million travelers. Meanwhile, the rest of the Kingdom’s airports combined carried as many as 2.85 million passengers in total. In February, Saudi Arabia’s aviation sector continues to expand as GACA reiterates its commitment to boost air connectivity to over 250 destinations. During the authority’s participation in a session at the third symposium organized by the Riyadh Economic Forum, Mohammed Al-Khuraisi, the executive vice president of strategy and business intelligence at the authority, reviewed the main objectives of the National Aviation Strategy, the Saudi Press Agency reported at the time. This aligns with the Kingdom’s efforts to achieve the goals of Saudi Vision 2030, which aims for the Saudi aviation sector to become the top rated in the Middle East region. As part of his speech at the time, Al-Khuraisi highlighted additional goals of the strategy, including developing the infrastructure and operational procedures of airports, increasing the local market share of low-cost airlines, and enhancing the competitiveness of national carriers.