SAUDI ARABIA’S smart airline ‘nasair’, launched in 2007 and operating over 450 flights per week, recently added Dubai to network as part of the airline’s strategic expansion within the Middle East and internationally. The new route, already operating, has added 10 flights a week between Dubai and Saudi Arabia, with five flights per week to and from Riyadh and five to Jeddah. There are further plans to add a new route from Dammam in 2011.
Sulaiman Al Hamdan, CEO of National Air Services (NAS Holding), said: “There has been a marked increase in demand for this route and thus was a logical step in our strategic expansion plans. According to recent statistics passenger figures through Dubai are up 14 per cent over 2010, which demonstrates the importance of the emirate as a major travel hub in the region.”
“By 2011 will have 18 flights per week from Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam to Dubai,” added Al Hamdan, who also mentioned that nasair now operates more than 450 flights weekly, and successfully added seven new destinations during the year 2010 in Syria, Sudan and India.
“Currently nasair is planning to add at least three more international routes in the first quarter of 2011. We are aiming to carry 2.2 million passengers by the end of this year and our current figures show that we are very close to achieving it,” he said. Since 2007 nasair has carried more than four million passengers and is a pioneering ‘Smart Airline’ with four core values of: Being On Time, Competitive Fares, Young Fleet and Smart Services. The airline will add another two Embraer E190s in December 2010, and three Airbus A320s in 2012 to its growing fleet.
nasair CEO Simon Stewart said: “The growing commercial ties between the UAE and Saudi Arabia has encouraged nasair to expand its destinations in the UAE and we have now three routes to and from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah connecting three main cities in Saudi Arabia; Riyadh, Jeddah and Madinah with total 31 weekly flights. Since 2008 nasair has carried more than 400,000 passengers due to the ever-increasing demand for travel between the two countries.” Stewart added that total number of flights to Dubai would increase to 39 flights per week in 2011 by increasing flights from current destinations and adding new routes from Dammam.