AIRPORT CARGO GUIDE — JEDDAH
King Abdulaziz International Airport Cargo Guide
The Kingdom’s busiest airport and Saudia Cargo’s home base: the Cargo Village and its automated ULD store, the Red Sea perishables and pharma flows, customs and cold chain, and the $31 billion expansion to 114 million passengers.
IATA · ICAO
JED · OEJN
Operator
Jeddah Airports Company (JEDCO)
Opened
31 May 1981
Cargo capacity
≈400,000 t / year
Cargo handled, 2024
≈461,000 t
Passengers, 2025
53.4 million — busiest in the Kingdom
Operator and ownership
- Operator
- Jeddah Airports Company (JEDCO), the airport’s operating company.
- Ultimate owner
- The Saudi state, through Matarat Holding.
- Regulator
- General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA).
- Principal cargo handler
- SAL Saudi Logistics Services, headquartered in Jeddah.
- Anchor carrier
- Saudia Cargo, whose main hub and head office are at this airport; Saudia itself is headquartered in Jeddah.
Location and coordinates
Approximately 19 km north of central Jeddah on the Red Sea coast, in Makkah Province — the primary air gateway for Makkah and Madinah, and the airport most closely paired with a Saudi seaport: Jeddah Islamic Port is around 30 km south.
- Coordinates
- 21.6796° N, 39.1567° E
- Elevation
- 15 m / 48 ft
- Site area
- ≈105 km²
- Runways
- Three parallel runways
- Time zone
- AST (UTC+3), no daylight saving
View King Abdulaziz International Airport on OpenStreetMap →
Cargo types handled
Terminal and cargo facilities
- Cargo centre
- A cargo handling centre of approximately 75,000 m² — the largest single air-cargo building in the Kingdom.
- Automated ULD store
- A fully automated storage system with 700 unit-load-device positions served by six elevating transfer vehicles.
- Airside interface
- 33 conveyor lines to the airside, with around 50 build-up and break-down workstations for containers of varying sizes.
- Pharma cold store
- Saudia Cargo operates a dedicated temperature-controlled pharmaceutical facility here, using active-temperature containers alongside advanced passive solutions.
- Cargo facilities
- Four integrated cargo facilities recorded in the most recent GASTAT air-transport release.
- Passenger terminals
- Terminal 1 (opened 2019), the Hajj Terminal under its landmark tent canopy, and the older north and south terminals. Belly-hold capacity across a 53-million-passenger network is the airport’s largest freight resource.
The automated ULD store and the conveyor-fed airside interface are what distinguish Jeddah operationally from the other Saudi gateways — this is the Kingdom’s most mechanised air-cargo terminal.
Annual tonnage and capacity
| Metric | Figure | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Cargo handled | ≈461,000 t | 2024 |
| Designed cargo capacity | ≈400,000 t / year | current |
| Dedicated cargo flights | 2,968 | 2025 |
| Passengers | 53.4 million | 2025 |
| Aircraft movements | 310,000+ | 2025 |
| Cargo tonnage, month by month | n/p | not published per airport |
Throughput has been running ahead of the nominal terminal design capacity, which is one of the reasons the expansion programme exists. Saudi airports handled 1.18 million tonnes nationally in 2025. Jeddah’s 53.4 million passengers in 2025 made it the busiest airport in the Kingdom and one of the busiest in the Middle East.
SOURCES · General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) · GASTAT Air Transport Statistics · Jeddah Airports Company (JEDCO) operational reporting
Main carriers and handlers
Saudia Cargo bases its main hub here and operates the widest freighter network of any Saudi carrier. Because Jeddah is the pilgrimage gateway, its belly capacity is seasonally enormous — which is exactly why perishables and pharma out of the Red Sea coast can find lift here when they cannot elsewhere.
Road and rail connections
- Road
- Highway 5 and Madinah Road run north–south past the airport; the Jeddah ring roads connect it to the port and the industrial areas of Al-Khumrah and Bahra.
- Rail — passenger
- The Haramain High-Speed Railway has a station at the airport, linking Makkah, Jeddah, King Abdullah Economic City and Madinah. It is a passenger railway; it carries no freight.
- Rail — freight
- None. There is no freight railway on the Red Sea coast. The Saudi Landbridge, the planned Riyadh–Jeddah freight line, would be the first.
- Sea
- Jeddah Islamic Port is roughly 30 km south — the shortest air–sea interchange in the Kingdom. King Abdullah Port is about 95 km north.
Customs facilities
Clearance is handled by ZATCA at the airport, with dedicated inspection facilities inside the cargo centre.
FASAH carries declarations, manifests and permits; SAL manages customs inspection on the handling side.
SFDA release is required for pharmaceuticals, food, cosmetics and medical devices. Bonded storage is available for uncleared and transit consignments.
Hajj and Umrah seasons impose their own operational rhythm on customs and handling capacity — plan clearance windows around them.
Cold-chain capability
Saudia Cargo operates a purpose-built pharmaceutical cold store at the airport, shipping and storing product in active temperature-controlled containers and using advanced passive solutions for the +2°C to +8°C and +15°C to +25°C ranges.
SAL provides chilled, controlled-room-temperature and frozen storage alongside, with cool dollies on the ramp as required by SFDA for imported pharma.
Makkah Province is the Kingdom’s largest cold-chain region by market share, driven by the port, the pilgrimage population and the density of the western consumption corridor.
Dangerous-goods capability
Dangerous goods are accepted under the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations through SAL and Saudia Cargo, with competency-based acceptance training.
Restricted classes — explosives, radioactive material, certain oxidisers — require prior approval and are subject to GACA and security conditions.
Lithium-battery consignments follow current IATA state and operator variations for Saudi Arabia; check the handler’s acceptance checklist before tendering.
Expansion projects
- JEDCO expansion programme
- A SAR 115 billion (≈$31 billion) programme to take the airport to 114 million passengers a year, with completion targeted around 2031. The largest components are the redesign and expansion of Terminal 1 and the construction of a new Terminal 2.
- New Hajj and Umrah terminal
- A dedicated terminal for low-cost and charter carriers, designed for 15 million passengers a year, to absorb pressure that would otherwise fall on Terminal 1.
- National air-cargo target
- GACA’s civil aviation strategy targets 4.5 million tonnes of national air cargo and more than 250 international destinations by 2030 — a figure Jeddah and Riyadh between them have to carry.
Official contact links
- King Abdulaziz International Airport ↗
- The airport’s own site — operations and passenger information.
- General Authority of Civil Aviation ↗
- The regulator; national air-cargo statistics.
- Saudia Cargo ↗
- The anchor carrier, headquartered at this airport.
- SAL Saudi Logistics Services ↗
- Cargo ground handling, cold chain and DG acceptance.
- ZATCA ↗
- Customs, tariff and clearance rules.
RiyadhCargo.com is an independent news monitoring service. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or acting for any organisation named on this page. Links are provided for reference only.
Latest related news
Frequently asked questions
How much cargo goes through Jeddah airport?
Around 461,000 tonnes in 2024, against a cargo centre nominally designed for about 400,000 tonnes a year — the airport has been running ahead of its design capacity. It also recorded 2,968 dedicated cargo flights in 2025.
Is Jeddah or Riyadh the bigger Saudi air-cargo airport?
Riyadh handled more tonnage in 2024 (≈573,000 t against ≈461,000 t), while Jeddah is the busier airport overall by passengers, flights and belly capacity. The two lead the Kingdom on different measures.
What makes the Jeddah cargo terminal different?
Mechanisation. The cargo centre runs an automated ULD store with 700 positions and six elevating transfer vehicles, 33 conveyor lines to the airside and around 50 build-up and break-down workstations — the most automated air-cargo facility in the Kingdom.
Can I combine air and sea freight through Jeddah?
It is the natural place to do it. Jeddah Islamic Port is roughly 30 km south of the airport, the shortest air–sea interchange in Saudi Arabia. There is no freight rail on the Red Sea coast, so the leg between them is a truck movement.
How big will the airport get?
JEDCO’s SAR 115 billion programme targets 114 million passengers a year with completion around 2031, including a new Terminal 2 and a 15-million-passenger Hajj and Umrah terminal.
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