Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia), the national carrier of the kingdom, is working on solutions to meet an estimated 25 million passengers on the carrier by 2020, said a top official.

Fleet size and the condition of facilities as well as the need for qualified staff, are among the main challenges, Khaled bin Abdullah Al-Molhem, director general of Saudi, was quoted by Arab News as having said in an interview with Al-Eqtisadiah.

He added that Jeddah and Riyadh airports are operating at more than 75 per cent of their capacity, and even the fleet size was increased, there was little scope to increase the number of flights.

“Saudia achieved an advanced service but has always faced the problem of seat availability on its domestic flights even though more than 50 extra planes have been allocated to this sector,” Al-Molhem said in the interview, according to the report.