Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Airport Security Systems in Saudi Arabia: Supporting Safe and Smart Aviation under Vision 2030

Abstract

Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and Saudi Aviation Strategy require airports to accommodate major growth while maintaining strong protection of passengers, aircraft, infrastructure, and digital systems. This review examines how artificial intelligence can strengthen airport security through intelligent video surveillance, automated baggage-screening support, biometric identity management, anomaly detection, cybersecurity analytics, predictive maintenance, and integrated command-and-control. It uses a structured narrative review of recent peer-reviewed literature and official aviation-policy sources. The analysis finds that AI can improve detection consistency, prioritise alarms, reduce equipment downtime, support passenger throughput, and enhance situational awareness. Nevertheless, airport security is a safety-critical domain in which false negatives, false positives, bias, privacy intrusion, cyberattack, model drift, and over-reliance on automation can create serious consequences. The paper proposes a five-layer Saudi framework covering data and sensing, AI analytics, operational response, governance and assurance, and Vision 2030 outcomes. It also recommends a phased implementation roadmap based on baseline assessment, controlled pilots, independent validation, workforce preparation, monitored scaling, and national coordination. The central conclusion is that AI should augment rather than replace aviation-security professionals. When deployed through human oversight, local validation, cybersecurity-by-design, transparent accountability, and continuous performance monitoring, AI-enabled security systems can support safe, smart, efficient, and globally competitive Saudi airports.