Saudia Cargo Goes Sea-Air

The Saudi Arabian freight airline has signed a pact with King Abdullah Port, located 90 km north of Jeddah. The business partner’s mutual aim is to establish an Air-Sea-Air cargo hub, spurring the fast flow of freight consignments by combining ocean and air transports.

King Abdullah Port (KAP), located at the shores of the Red Sea half way between the Gulf of Aden and the Suez Canal, is a gigantic project and the first major logistics facility in Saudi Arabia completely privately financed, owned, and operated. 
The newly established Port together with its surrounding large Economic City, totaling 17 million square meters, was established to capitalize on the high volumes of trade flowing constantly both ways between Asia and Europe via the Middle East. The operators claim that transshipment times can be reduced by 5 to 7 days when shipping lines decide to call at KAP and use the logistics services rendered by the operator.

New avenues
An indirect but nonetheless very clear competitive signal to Dubai which has made itself a name over the last two decades as leading sea-air hub in the Middle East.
As a matter of fact, vessels steaming from Far East to European destinations need two or three additional days when calling at Dubai in comparison to routing their ships straight through the Red Sea, stopping over at King Abdullah Port. This saves steaming time and money and makes combined ocean-air solutions even more attractive to the market due to the time advantage.
Therefore, the Air-Sea-Air agreement signed by Saudia Cargo CEO Omar Hariri and CEO Rayan Qutub of King Abdullah Economic Port does not come as real surprise since their pact opens new avenues for their customers, supplementing the services already rendered.    
The contract covers various aspects including transportation, logistics operations, supply and information exchange.