Saudi Air Navigation Services: Creating sustainable skies for Vision 2030

Transcript

Saudi Air Navigation Services, or SANS, is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s national air navigation provider, guiding over a million flights a year safely and efficiently. It manages over two million square kilometres of airspace from 19 towers, nine approach centres, and two area control centres; delivering air traffic control, airspace management, and aeronautical information services.

In the first or our series of three videos with Saudi Air Navigation Services, Ahmed Alzahrani, its Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, explains all the ways SANS has been reducing its environmental footprint in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030: positioning Saudi Arabia as a global hub, while advancing the environmental stewardship at the heart of the national strategy.

Watch the rest of this video series with Saudi Air Navigation Services:
Investing in growth, resilience, and sustainability
Financial resilience through operational excellence

Ahmed Alzahrani: Saudi Air Navigation Services, or SANS, is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s national air navigation service provider, guiding over a million flights a year safely and efficiently.

We provide our services from 19 towers, nine approach centres, and two area control centres, to manage more than two million square kilometres of airspace.

We deliver air traffic control, airspace management, and aeronautical information services, supported by engineering and maintenance; keeping our skies safe, efficient, and reliable around the clock.

Ahmed Alzahrani: When we started looking at ways to reduce our environmental footprint, we found the greatest opportunity was in airspace and flight efficiency: shorter routes, fewer holding patterns, and reduced taxi times – where small gains multiply across a million flights.

Through the Saudi Future Airspace Concept, or SFAC, we are fully restructuring our airspace: optimising sectors and enabling direct routes, while designing for growth and a smaller carbon footprint.

We have adopted Intelligent Approach Technology so we can safely land more planes while cutting holding times and emissions – by moving from fixed-distance to time-based separation, and adapting to wind and wake conditions dynamically using real-time data.

These changes have already increased runway throughput and reduced delays. Parallel runway operations alone cut takeoff and landing times by up to 60 percent, directly lowering fuel use and emissions.

Our ambition at Saudi Air Navigation Services is to be a globally leading sustainable air navigation service provider, supporting the national target of a 30 percent flight-emissions reduction, and net zero by 2060.

We have embedded sustainability across our operations and achieved measurable efficiency gains. Next, we will formalise it further, pursuing ISO 14001 certification and CANSO GreenATM accreditation by 2026.

Vision 2030 is the Kingdom’s roadmap for sustainability growth. For aviation, it means expanding capacity and connectivity while building a resilient, environmentally responsible sector for generations to come.

Our work directly serves Vision 2030’s aviation goals: positioning the Kingdom as a global hub, while advancing the environmental stewardship at the heart of the national strategy.