Saudi Arabia is seeking companies such as Amazon.com, Alibaba Group, and DHL Express to boost its air cargo and distribution operations, Mohammed Fahad Alkhuraisi, vice president for strategy at the Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation, told Bloomberg News at the recent 2022 Farnborough International Airshow.

The country plans to stage a number of roadshows by the end of 2023 as it seeks to persuade the e-commerce and air freight giants to help ramp up its own operations and infrastructure. It will invite private companies from abroad to create local partnerships and set up freight-forwarding and warehousing activities, Alkhuraisi explained.

In line with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 framework to reduce its dependence on oil and diversify its economy, the advance into air cargo and logistics aims to accelerate the capacity of the kingdom’s air cargo sector to more than 4.5 million tonnes per year by the end of the decade as part of a USD100 billion plan to enlarge the aviation sector.

This is a plan that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sketched out a year ago, when he also confirmed press reports that the country was planning to establish a second national airline. Saudi Arabia’s preparations to expand its airport infrastructure and set up a new passenger airline in the capital Riyadh are “progressing very well,” Alkhuraisi claimed.

The kingdom already has two low-cost airlines, flynas (XY, Riyadh) and flyadeal (F3, Jeddah International), while flag carrier Saudia (SV, Jeddah International) serves longer-haul, pilgrimage, and Red Sea tourism markets but has one of the smallest networks in the region relative to its size. The civil aviation authority is looking to coordinate with the airlines to make sure “the overall picture makes sense,” Alkhuraisi said.

Alkhuraisi also told Bloomberg that Saudi Arabia will cut airport fees by up to 35% at Riyadh, Jeddah International, and Dammam later this year, as the airports are given flexibility to cut charges below the announced caps in order to maximise growth.

Also at Farnborough, Alkhuraisi told the UAE’s The National that the new airline would be launched “very soon” as the country targets three times as many foreign tourists by the end of the decade. “I know it’s going to fly very soon,” he added but declined to give specific details. Aviation is key to the success of Vision 2030, he said, and Saudi Arabia aims to become a global hub for connections between Africa, Asia, and Europe.