In the near future, moving to Makkah will likely be much easier due to plans from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to develop a brand-new airport. This will completely reshape the journey to Makkah for millions of pilgrims traveling each year for Hajj and Umrah.
Instead of flying a considerable distance before being transported by land for a long time to get to their destination, future travelers could fly directly into Makkah.
At this time, there is no international airport in Makkah. Most pilgrims traveling from outside the country arrive at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, which is approximately 100 km from Makkah, before taking ground transportation (bus or taxi) to get to Makkah.
Ground trips often take quite a while to complete, especially during peak pilgrimage seasons. Therefore, the goal of building an airport in the city of Makkah will allow for convenient and efficient travel to Makkah. Shorter travel time, easy movement, and less congestion at the surrounding transport systems are the result.
The Royal Commission for Makkah City and the Holy Places, a government agency responsible for planning and constructing in Makkah, is working in partnership with private organizations to develop a sustainable financial and operational model for the airport and metro system.
Developing a transportation infrastructure is only part of the overall effort to develop a long-term transportation ecosystem. This new transportation ecosystem will develop the infrastructure for an addition to and support of movement throughout the city.
The country is making several attempts to incorporate and experiment with different types of advanced transportation technology, such as autonomous electric air vehicles, in Makkah to provide alternatives for emergency transportation and medical deliveries.
This demonstrates that the government does not only want to provide traditional ways of getting around. The vision of the government is to incorporate modern transportation systems that are currently efficient and will prepare the Hajj route into the Holy City to enhance a rapid transit style of movement in the future.
Developing an airport in Makkah poses several challenges. The terrain around the proposed airport site has several mountains which create significant difficulties for aircraft to safely approach the airport because of proximity to mountains, and there are many concerns about weather, turbulence due to mountains, and visibility. Careful planning and engineering will need to be performed to create the airport safely.
While the vision for the city of Makkah is exciting, it also will need careful planning and engineering to develop. Studies concerning the feasibility and design of the airport have been completed and submitted to the proper authority in order that they may review these studies and approve moving forward with the airport.
Makkah has an extensive bus system operating throughout the city with approximately 400 buses on 12 routes covering approximately 580 km of area. Since the launching of this system in late 2022, over 185 million passengers have utilized the system.
With millions of pilgrims making their way to Mecca every single year. New transportation solutions for pilgrims will always be a necessity. This new International Airport could be a huge improvement over current options to transport international pilgrims.
Over 1.5 million International Hajj Pilgrims came to Saudi Arabia in just a single year. Plus, there were over 1.6 million total, who went on a Hajj pilgrimage in one single year. Those pilgrims came from every continent, including Europe, the Americas and Australia.
Massive amounts of people continue to travel to the city every single year.
This is part of a much larger effort by Saudi Arabia to modernize the city, build new airports and a series of rail lines around the holy cities for much better overall pilgrimage experiences.
Transportation coordination, reduced travel times and improving the overall accessibility of these projects will create a much better experience than what we have all experienced previously.
If everything goes according to plan, all future Hajj pilgrims will arrive at the city of Mecca much more conveniently than they ever have before.
