The Saudi aviation takeoff opens a big question: who will operate all those aircraft?
Saudi Arabia has in recent years been investing enormous political and financial capital in transport and tourism transformation, and aviation is one of its most visible pillars. From new aircraft orders and the expansion of national carriers to ambitious plans to turn Riyadh into a global transport hub, the pace of the sector’s expansion is no longer merely a regional story. However, the faster the fleet expands, the more openly the question arises of whether the human and educational system can keep up with such dynamics. At the center of that debate is the search for pilots, but also the broader problem of training technical and operational staff without whom even the most expensive aircraft mean very little.
Boeing’s new forecast for the period from 2025 to 2044 shows that the Middle East will need around 67,000 new pilots, 63,000 technicians, and 104,000 cabin crew members. That means the region is no longer talking only about traffic growth, but about a long-term competition for personnel who are already in global demand. In that context, Saudi Arabia acts as the engine of that wave, but at the same time as its greatest test. If the goal is to dramatically increase the number of flights, destinations, and passengers, then the capacity to educate the people who will keep that system safe, regular, and profitable must increase in parallel.
The ambition is clear, the numbers are even clearer
The Saudi state aviation program sets a target of 330 million passengers annually by 2030, more than 250 destinations, and cargo traffic growth to 4.5 million tons. This is not a cosmetic correction of the existing model, but an attempt at a deep reshaping of the national economy in line with the Vision 2030 program, which aims to turn an energy-dependent state into an extensive logistics, tourism, and business center. Such a strategy assumes that aviation becomes much more than a transport activity: it becomes development infrastructure, an entry point for tourism, business, international events, and distribution chains.
Official Saudi data show that this process is already in full swing. The General Authority of Civil Aviation announced that Saudi airports handled 140.9 million passengers during 2025, which is an increase of 9.6 percent compared with the previous year. The number of flights rose to about 980,400, and international connectivity reached 176 destinations. It is particularly significant that some of the key hubs are already burdened beyond their designed capacities. In Jeddah, King Abdulaziz International Airport was operating above the planned load level according to official data, and the same applies to other major hubs, showing that growth is no longer a theoretical plan but an operational reality pressing on the entire system.
Riyadh Air and Saudia as symbols of the new direction
Two names are especially important for understanding Saudi aviation expansion: Saudia as the established national carrier and Riyadh Air as the new project meant to symbolize the modernization of the sector. Riyadh Air received its operating license in 2025, continued building a partnership network, and further expanded its fleet plans. After earlier orders, the company also announced in June 2025 the procurement of up to 50 Airbus A350-1000 aircraft, while on its official website it continues to highlight the goal of connecting Riyadh with more than 100 destinations by 2030. Such growth implies not only the marketing visibility of the new company, but also accelerated hiring of crews, instructors, dispatchers, technicians, and a range of specialists who form the operational core of every carrier.
Saudia is not standing aside either. In April 2025, the group announced that it expects the delivery of 191 new aircraft in the years ahead, thereby making it clear that this is not a one-off surge, but a long-term renewal and expansion of the fleet. That number alone shows how strong the pressure on the labor market will be. Every new aircraft requires not only pilots for the start of operations, but also replacement crews, instructor staff, simulator slots, licensing, ongoing proficiency checks, and an entire chain of regulatory and safety support. In other words, aircraft orders are easy to announce, but much harder to turn into a sustainable operational system.
The biggest bottleneck is not runways, but people
In public discourse, the expansion of aviation is often measured by the size of terminals, the number of ordered aircraft, and attractive renderings of future airports. But experts have long warned that the real limit to growth is often not physical infrastructure, but the availability of qualified people. A pilot is not trained overnight. Years pass from initial selection and basic training to multi-engine flying, instrument ratings, simulator work, and type rating on a specific aircraft type, and the final result depends on the quality of instructors, the availability of simulators, the regulatory framework, and the carrier’s ability to retain personnel.
That is precisely why estimates about the need for tens of thousands of new pilots in the region should be read as a warning, not just as an indicator of market potential. If several states and carriers are simultaneously accelerating growth, then all are seeking the same profile of people at roughly the same time. This increases hiring costs, encourages international poaching of personnel, and can open a gap between the pace of fleet expansion and the pace of competency development. In such circumstances, countries with deep pockets can attract pilots from abroad, but that does not solve the structural problem. A long-term sustainable model requires a strong domestic educational pool, and that is precisely the part of the system that is built most slowly.
The Saudi response: investment in academies, partners, and scholarships
Saudi institutions and companies are clearly aware of this. In May 2025, IATA announced that it was expanding cooperation with the local educational and aviation community to support the development of skills needed for the sector’s growth. Under these agreements, Riyadh Airports Company and Qassim University were to become regional training partners, while Prince Sultan Aviation Academy expanded its course offering. According to IATA, the three involved institutions offer more than 60 programs covering airport development and management, safety, commercial skills, and operational ground knowledge. It is also important that additional education was announced for graduates connected with Riyadh Air and Saudia, with the aim of attracting and developing domestic talent for future leading roles in the industry.
In parallel with that, Riyadh Air had already earlier begun building its own training ecosystem. At the end of 2023, the company announced a partnership with Canada’s CAE to establish a modern pilot training center, including simulators for the Boeing 787. That move was an important signal that the new airline was not relying only on external market capacities, but was trying to create its own base for the training and checking of crews. In February 2026, Riyadh Air went a step further and presented an overseas scholarship program for Saudi citizens who want to become fully qualified first officers. It is a measure that simultaneously makes operational and political sense: the company secures future personnel, while the state links the expansion of aviation with national employment and the creation of a new professional elite.
Why even that may not be enough
Still, between launching programs and actually filling cockpits there is a time gap that cannot be bridged by political will. Even when a country invests in simulators, academies, and international partnerships, the training of pilots and technical staff remains a multi-year process. At the same time, the growth of passenger traffic and the delivery of new aircraft are happening much faster. This creates a classic synchronization problem: demand is exploding now, and part of the labor supply will appear only in a few years. Until then, carriers must rely on experienced foreign personnel, which increases costs and exposes them to the instability of the global labor market.
The second problem is quality, not just quantity. Rapid expansion in aviation always carries the danger that under deadline pressure the focus begins to fall primarily on the number of certified people, and less on the breadth of experience and the maintenance of standards. Saudi Arabia is for now emphasizing the regulatory and safety framework through GACA, but the experience of other markets shows that bottlenecks tend to appear at the most sensitive points: in the availability of instructors, simulator slots, examiner capacity, and the ability to finance training continuously without fluctuations. If savings are made there or if administration does not keep pace with growth, the system easily enters a phase of delays, and then the problem turns from a staffing issue into a commercial one.
The third challenge is competition within the region itself. Gulf states have for decades been building major carriers and attracting international pilots with attractive contracts. Saudi Arabia is now entering a new phase in which it no longer wants to be just a large domestic market, but a dominant regional player. This means it will compete for the same pool of experts with established companies from the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and other countries that already have developed training and operational systems. In such an environment, money helps, but it is not enough. Pilots and instructors also look at quality of life, schedule stability, company reputation, regulatory predictability, and the possibility of long-term professional development.
What growth means for the broader economy
Saudi aviation expansion is not important only because it speaks about passenger transport. It is a test of the state’s ability to carry out broader economic diversification. If the plan succeeds, greater connectivity should strengthen tourism, the congress industry, logistics, trade, and the country’s investment attractiveness. More routes and greater flight frequency increase the accessibility of Saudi cities, facilitate the arrival of foreign visitors, and help major projects that rely on international traffic. In that sense, the pilot in the cockpit becomes part of a much larger story about how the state is building a new position on the global map.
But that is precisely why the personnel question is so sensitive. If human capacities prove insufficient, the consequences will not remain confined within the industry. Delivery delays, slower route openings, more expensive operations, or reliance on temporary solutions can slow other sectors that count on aviation as a development multiplier. In other words, the discussion about 67,000 new pilots for the Middle East is not just aviation statistics. It is an indicator of how quickly the region can turn its infrastructural and investment ambitions into a functional, safe, and sustainable system.
Can the Saudi plan withstand the pace of its own ambitions?
According to the data available today, the answer is not yet unambiguous. Saudi Arabia clearly has the political will, capital, and institutional support to continue expanding the sector. Passenger numbers are growing, fleets are expanding, new carriers are entering the operational phase, and educational and training projects are taking on a more concrete form. These are strong arguments supporting the thesis that this is not a passing wave, but a deliberate and deeply financed shift. At the same time, those same data also reveal vulnerable points: some airports are operating under heavy strain, the need for expert personnel is growing faster than the usual pace of the educational system, and the regional labor market is already highly competitive.
Because of that, the real sustainability of the Saudi aviation boom will be measured less by the number of ordered aircraft, and more by the country’s ability to build a sufficiently broad and high-quality pool of people who will carry that growth for years. If academies, partnerships, scholarships, and the regulatory system manage to keep pace with fleet ambition, Saudi Arabia could indeed establish itself as one of the world’s key air hubs. If, however, the pace of human development lags behind the pace of orders and route openings, the region could soon discover that the greatest limitation of its aviation rise lies neither on the runway nor in the terminal, but in the cockpit.
Sources:- Boeing – executive summary of the forecast of needs for pilots, technicians, and cabin crew in the period 2025–2044. link
- GACA – official overview of the Saudi aviation program and goals until 2030. link
- GACA – official statistical overview of Saudi air traffic growth in 2025. link
- Riyadh Air – official announcement on the order of up to 50 Airbus A350-1000 aircraft. link
- Riyadh Air – official page with the goal of connecting to more than 100 destinations by 2030. link
- Saudia – official announcement on fleet expansion and planned deliveries of new aircraft. link
- IATA – announcement on partnerships for skills development and training in Saudi aviation. link
- Riyadh Air – official announcement on the scholarship program for future first officers. link
- CAE – announcement on the establishment of a pilot training center and simulators for the Boeing 787. link
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