The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's smart airline 'nasair', launched in 2007 and operating over 450 flights per week, recently announced its new route to Dubai International Airport as part of its strategic expansion both within the Middle East and internationally.
The new route, which is now already operating, 10 flights a week between Dubai and Saudi Arabia, with 5 flights per week to and from Riyadh and 5 to Jeddah.
Speaking at the Dubai press conference to announce the new route and the airlines growth strategy, Sulaiman Al Hamdan, CEO of National Air Services (NAS Holding) said; "We have seen a marked increase in demand from passengers to travel between Dubai and Saudi Arabia so opening up this route 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 Al Dammam to Dubai" added Al Hamdan who also mentioned that nasair now operates more than 450 flights weekly, and successfully added 7 new destinations during the year 2010 in Syria, Sudan and India.
"Currently nasair is planning to add at least 3 more international routes by 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.
Simon Stewart nasair CEO 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 3 routes to and from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah connecting three main cities in Saudi Arabia; Riyadh, Jeddah and Al 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 shall increase to 39 flights per week in 2011 by increasing flights from current destinations and adding new route from Dammam .
nasair is currently flying to 24 domestic and international destinations with its young and modern fleet which consist of 13 aircraft.
nasair will add another two Embraer E190s in December 2010, and three Airbus A320s in 2012 to its growing fleet.
About the growth in the travel sector in the Gulf, Stewart said; "Business travel is crucial on both a regional and global scale, so being able to help this sector by providing cost effective and quality travel is something that we are committed. We want to link up with our neighboring countries and help strengthen relations around the region."
