Middle Eastern airlines’ passenger demand rose 9.6% year-on-year in November 2025, with capacity up 9.2% and a load factor of 81.4% (+0.3 ppt). Globally, passenger demand grew 5.7% versus November 2024, per IATA data.
The global air passenger demand in 2025 (measured in revenue passenger kilometres or RPKs) rose 5.3% compared to 2024, according to an International Air Transport Association (IATA) report.
Oman’s low-cost carrier SalamAir has announced that it had operated nearly 5,800 flights carrying a total of 839,630 passengers across its network during the fourth quarter with an on-time performance of 77.5%, thus highlighting its operational resilience.
King Abdulaziz International Airport has reached a historic milestone by welcoming 53.4 million passengers in a single year, marking the highest count ever recorded at a Saudi airport and solidifying its status among the world’s mega airports in passenger traffic.
Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation sector achieved exceptional growth in 2025, setting record figures in air traffic statistics. The number of passengers exceeded 140 million, up about 9%.
Abu Dhabi Airports, operator of the emirate’s five airports including the flagship Zayed International Airport (AUH), recorded more than 33 million annual passengers in 2025, the largest influx of travellers in the emirate’s history.
