RIYADH: In a bid to attract more multinational companies from the logistics and cargo sector, Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation has started working on a special economic zone in Riyadh.
While speaking at the Future Aviation Forum in Riyadh, GACA president Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al-Duailej revealed this new special economic zone will have economic and legislative packages capable of driving up more multinational entities in the future.
The zone will help the aviation industry get back to it's pre-pandemic levels, although he noted that this will take at least two more years.
The announcement came as GACA revealed it has a new global air travel policy, tentatively named Harmonizing Air Travel, in cooperation with the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization.
The new framework is expected to make international journeys simpler, by avoiding the confusion over travel requirements currently discouraging millions of people from booking flights.
The new policy will be formally presented at the 41st ICAO General Assembly later in 2022 to receive approval from member states.
Addressing the forum, Al-Duailej said: "This is a critical time for the aviation industry globally, we know the pandemic impact on the global economy is severe but the aviation industry has been hit the most."
He insisted that is only through closer cooperate that "billions of dollars" could be saved in any future crisis.
Al-Duailej added: "To ensure a speedy recovery going back to normal traffic, we need to resolve a lot of issues and challenges, one of which is the ambiguity and the unclarity about the various travel requirements."
A YouGov survey conducted ahead of the Forum revealed widespread misunderstanding about air travel health regulations that may affect the aviation industry.
The study revealed that 46 percent of Gulf residents, 32 percent of Americans, 40 percent of Italians, and 40 percent of Brits believe that confusing health regulations will prevent them from flying in 2022.
In addition, 68 percent of individuals in the Gulf, 46 percent of respondents in the US, 61 percent of people in Italy, and 65 percent of people in the UK opted not to travel in 2021 because of these same confusions.