Arab News, Thursday, Nov 03, 2022 | Rabi Al Thani 8, 1444
Saudi Arabia, Finland sign air transport MoU to boost trade
Saudi Arabia:
Saudi Arabia and Finland have signed an agreement to bolster air services
between both countries in a bid to improve trade.
The Kingdom’s General Authority of Civil Aviation
and Finland’s Ministry of Transport and Communications have signed a memorandum
of understanding to monitor air transport, Saudi Press Agency reported.
The MoU aims to further boost Saudi-Finnish
economic partnerships, with the GACA, along with a total of 12 government
agencies and 27 firms, already participating in cross-country business.
The agreement tackles air transport-related
organizational clauses, the designation of national carriers, defining the
regular number of flights between both countries, and the commercial
representation of airlines.
The MoU also paves the way for regulatory
framework cooperation and safe and secure air transport between the two sides.
Through this agreement, GACA seeks to achieve some
of the objectives in the National Transport and Logistics Strategy to enhance
the competitiveness of the sector and to contribute to the transformation of the
Kingdom into a global logistics hub for Asia, Africa, and Europe.
Objectives in the National Transport and Logistics
Strategy include transporting up to 330 million passengers by 2030.
Earlier in 2022, GACA signed a similar MoU with
Poland to regulate the operational framework of air transport between the two
countries.
Both MoUs are in accordance with Saudi civil
aviation sector strategy, which aims to elevate the number of local and
international flights to over 250 destinations and to attract many international
lines to use the Kingdom’s airports.
Saudi aviation figures tend to exceed those of
Finland, with the number of passengers carried by Saudi aviation in 2020
standing at 26.9 million, compared to 3.5 million for Finland, according to
latest data from the World Bank.
In addition to this, Saudi's air passenger numbers
surged 30 percent to reach 49 million passengers in 2021 compared to the
previous year according to CAPA Center for Aviation.