Who owns saudi arabian airlines

Saudia has its own cargo division, Saudia Cargo, which services over 20 destinations with a dedicated cargo fleet. Each profile offers comprehensive news and analysis, as well as the ability to drill down into data on schedules, capacity share, fleet, traffic, financial results and more.

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The year was perhaps Saudia's most traumatic to date. The Iraqi invasion and occupation of Kuwait, followed by the eventual military action to force the Iraqis out of Kuwait, caused great disruption to the world economy and especially to the airline business for many months after the fighting had stopped.

For Saudia the immediate effect of the Iraqi invasion was the disruption of scheduled services within the region. Services to Baghdad and Kuwait were suspended and all other regional and long-haul flights suffered some form of disruption.

With the airline's main business centers in Jeddah, Riyhad, and Dhahran acting as important logistical bases for the massive military buildup in the region, airspace for military use became a priority.

One year after the end of the Gulf War, only 75 percent of the air services within the region that were halted during the conflict had been resumed. Furthermore, intraregional air traffic had fallen by almost 30 percent compared with the level. For Saudia, the financial impact of the Gulf War in terms of reduced revenue and higher insurance premiums forced the airline to freeze its plan for a fleet modernization program involving the replacement of all of the company's Boeing s, some of which were more than 20 years old.

The Middle East Economic Digest quoted Saudia's executive vice-president for operations, Adnan Dabbagh, as saying: "We did have a plan anticipating some fleet replacements but, with the crisis, everything is being postponed until things get back to normal. Over the course of its development, Saudia has tended to follow a policy of business expansion in response to growing demand. The airline has benefited greatly from its domestic market, which has expanded rapidly and steadily. This approach has resulted in a stabilization of passenger volumes in recent years.

According to Jane's Airline Directory, Saudia's prudent approach "has protected the airline from the worst of the economic and traffic downturn in the Middle East generally, following the rapid decline in the oil price. This was compounded by Saudi Arabia's poor relations with a number of its geographically close neighbors, including Iraq, Iran, and Israel. To date, however, the airline also had proved that good relations with close neighbors was not a prerequisite for successful business.

As Saudia depended on other countries for labor, in the s it intensified its training program to ensure a supply of Saudi workers and pilots. At the time, all of the female flight attendants were foreigners; the other half of the cabin crew were all Saudi, as were three-quarters of the technical staff. The latter aircraft featured the Honeywell Pegasus advanced flight management system, making Saudia the launch customer for these avionics. The first Boeings, scheduled to arrive in , were delivered late amid rumors of financing problems on the part of the Saudis.

To provide extra capacity without further taxing its capital resources, in early the company leased four Boeing aircraft from an Icelandic firm. Later that year it was reported that J.

Many national airlines in the Middle East struggled in the s, prompting a call for an "open skies" policy among regional carriers. Jordan's Prince Faisal Bin Al Hussein challenged the efficacy of major carriers serving such short routes with half-full jumbo jets. The addition of another airline would increase the number of international destinations from Saudi Arabia to more than and double air cargo capacity to more than 4. With current flag bearer Saudi Arabian Airlines Saudia , the kingdom has one of the smallest airline networks in the region relative to its size.

Saudia has struggled with losses for years and like global peers, has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. You can also choose from our range of premium add-ons, including Route Maps, Fleet Data and more.

Saudia Group Airline Group.