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.
Fully in line with “Vision 2030”
After the ink had dried Mr Hariri emphasized that the agreement plays a pivotal role in the flow and the transportation of cargoes from KAP to Saudia Cargo’s facilities at Jeddah International
Airport and vice versa. “We recognize the importance of King Abdullah Port’s contribution to strengthening and enhancing the Kingdom’s regional and international role in logistical and supply
chain services. We will work side by side with our partners to ensure optimum coordination and productivity,” assured the manager.
He added to this that establishing an Air-Sea-Air hub to ensure the smooth flow of cargo between harbor and airport and fly it off by air is in line with the Saudi “Vision 2030” aiming to turn
the Arabian country, located at the crossroads of global traffic, into an international logistics hub.
Heiner Siegmund
Write a comment