Jeddah Airport Reaches ACI Level 4 in Customer Experience
- King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA) in Jeddah has reached Level 4 of the Airport Council International’s (ACI) Airport Customer Experience Accreditation, moving up from Level 3, which it received in September 2025.
- The ACI programme has five levels and measures how an airport manages customer experience across eight areas, including strategy, measurement, governance, and airport culture — it is not a passenger satisfaction poll like Skytrax or ASQ awards.
- KAIA handled about 53.4 to 53.5 million passengers in 2025, more than 310,000 flights, and over 60 million bags, the highest volume of any Saudi airport.
The upgrade places Saudi Arabia’s busiest airport in an advanced stage of a programme where few airports worldwide have reached Level 4.
The Level 4 Accreditation
King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA / JED) in Jeddah received the Level 4 accreditation in early July 2026, with ACI World also listing the airport among that period’s upgrades. The airport’s official site now lists Level 4 among its current recognitions.
This followed Level 3, which the airport was awarded in September 2025 at ACI’s Airport Experience Summit in Guangzhou. The step-up fits a multi-year effort by Jeddah Airports Company (JEDCO) to build passenger experience into a measured, managed system rather than treating it as separate service projects.
ACI does not publish a public ranking of airports by accreditation level, so figures describing KAIA’s position among a “top 12 worldwide” group cannot be checked against ACI’s own materials. Level 4 is still an advanced stage — only a small group of airports globally have reached it, including London Luton, Vienna, Queen Alia in Amman, and other Saudi airports such as King Khalid in Riyadh and King Fahd in Dammam. Level 5, the highest stage, is rarer still.
What Level 4 Actually Means
ACI’s programme runs across five levels and audits how an airport manages customer experience across eight areas: customer understanding, strategy, measurement, operational improvement, governance, airport culture, service design and innovation, and airport-community collaboration.
At Level 4:
- Customer experience is built into the airport’s culture.
- All employees are expected to help understand, improve, and reshape the passenger journey.
- Executives treat customer experience as a factor in overall performance, not only as a service function.
- Airport partners work together on projects aimed at improving the passenger experience.
Level 5, the final stage, would mean the airport’s corporate strategy and its customer experience strategy become one and the same, with daily operational targets built around what passengers actually experience.
Why This Matters for Jeddah
KAIA is Saudi Arabia’s busiest airport and the main air gateway for Hajj and Umrah pilgrims. In 2025, it handled about 53.4 to 53.5 million passengers, more than 310,000 flights, and over 60 million bags — the highest annual volume recorded by any Saudi airport. Peak Umrah and Hajj seasons add heavy, time-sensitive demand on top of regular commercial traffic.
The airport’s current terminal complex, opened in phases from 2019, is where this traffic moves through: large, high-ceiling halls with white tree-like columns, geometric Islamic patterning, and a large aquarium feature in the public areas.
JEDCO and the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) link the accreditation to Vision 2030 goals — better journeys for pilgrims and visitors, stronger connectivity, and a more competitive regional hub. Other recent recognitions for KAIA include a Skytrax 4-star rating in 2025, a place in Skytrax’s Top 100, and Best Airport in the Middle East in the 40-50 million passenger category.
In the 2026 Skytrax rankings, KAIA placed third among mega airports in the 50-60 million passenger band, was named fifth most improved airport, and rose 17 places to rank 27th overall. The airport also holds other ACI credentials, including progress on carbon accreditation, and recognition from the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM).
Level 4 is a certification of process and culture, not a “best airport” title. For an airport moving more than 50 million people a year, including millions of pilgrims, it shows that customer experience systems, staff accountability, measurement, and partner coordination have been judged mature enough to place KAIA in the upper tier of ACI’s framework. Level 5 remains the next step in the same programme.
