Airline spending posts gains for 2nd week as flights resume at Riyadh airport, SAMA data shows

RIYADH: Spending on airlines in Saudi Arabia rose for a second consecutive week in the week ending Nov. 7, as operations resumed at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh following Houthi attacks on the facility, official data showed.

Point-of-sale transactions in the airline sector totaled SR33.83 million ($9.02 million), up 8.5 percent from the previous week, according to the Saudi Central Bank.

That followed an 11.2 percent increase in the week ending Oct. 31, lifting spending about 20.7 percent above the level of two weeks earlier. The number of airline transactions rose 4.7 percent to 179,000.

Overall, the Kingdom’s POS transactions totaled SR15.03 billion during the monitored week, down 2.5 percent from the previous seven-day period, while the number of transactions was essentially flat at 264.85 million.