What’s On The Horizon For: The Red Sea International Airport

During Routes World 2024 in Bahrain, Routes spoke to The Red Sea International Airport to discuss its first year of operations and plans for international expansion.  

Having started operations in September 2023, The Red Sea International Airport (RSI) serves The Red Sea destination, a luxury tourism destination on Saudi Arabia’s west coast. Located within three hours’ flying time of 250 million people, the airport is set to serve one million guests annually by 2030.  

Phase one of The Red Sea includes the opening of the airport alongside 16 iconic world-class resorts, of which three resorts are now open for business. Upon completion in 2030, the destination will host 50 hotels and over 1,000 residential properties across 22 islands and six inland sites.  

The unique destination is built to cater to the growing travel segment who are interested in a luxury holiday without making a significant carbon footprint. Limited to accommodate a maximum of one million visitors a year, development has been undertaken to preserve the ecosystem whilst enriching the environment for future generations.  

Over 700,000 solar panels are currently in activation at The Red Sea powering the airport’s airfield, which will expand to power the whole airport and destination with renewable electricity by 2025. RSI is also the first airport in Saudi Arabia to offer sustainable aviation fuel and have entirely electric vehicles taking passengers from the airport to their destination.  

RSI’s first inbound flight welcomed passengers from King Khalid International Airport (RUH) in Riyadh with a 2X-weekly service from SAUDIA Airlines. Since then, this service has now increased to 4X-weekly. SAUDIA Airlines also began flights from King Abdulaziz International Airport (JED) in Jeddah with a 2X-weekly service.  

From April 2024, RSI launched its partnership with flydubai, welcoming its first international service and passengers from Dubai International Airport (DXB).  

Speaking at Routes World 2024, RSI chief commercial officer Michael White gave insight into how the airport’s route development strategy is progressing and plans for growth. Short term, RSI has achieved its goal of providing access to the destination to its domestic market. Having then launched its first international route, White said the airport hopes to see further connectivity across the GCC region in addition to Europe, Germany and the United Kingdom in particular.  

“We’re taking it step-by-step in a phased approach. We’ll start with Europe as the first exotic destination served at The Red Sea. Following that our aspirations include America, China and the farther markets,” said White. 

Exhibiting at the event in Bahrain, White added: “It’s great to be able to catch up with everyone that you perhaps don’t get to see over the year and have those conversations. It’s great fun and is a great place to do business.”

The airport continues to promote its latest developments and route opportunities through its Routes 360 profile.