JEDDAH, 23 March 2005 — Saudi Arabian Airlines planes will now fly to Hyderabad in India twice a week. The flights will be from both Jeddah and Riyadh to Hyderabad. The inaugural flight to Hyderabad will be on March 29. Hyderabad will become the fifth station in India that the airline operates to in addition to Bombay, Madras, Cochin and Delhi.
Khaled Bin Bakr, director general of Saudi Arabian Airlines, said the decision to add Hyderabad to the airline’s network was taken after comprehensive and scientific studies of the Indian market, which is experiencing a noticeable increase in travel movement to the Kingdom and the Gulf.
“India has a large number of traveling public, considering the size of the labor force traveling to the Gulf states and the thousands of Muslims coming for Haj and Umrah, in addition to thousands more visiting India for leisure and business,” said Khaled. He added that India covers a larger part of Saudia’s Asian network. It carried 548,973 passengers to and from India in 2004 as a result of competitive prices and outstanding services provided onboard its flights.
He also said the number of flights to India, including the two flights to Hyderabad, will increase to 26 a week: Ten flights to Bombay, six to Delhi, five to Madras, three to Cochin and the two to Hyderabad.
The new route comes ahead of the summer vacation when traffic to India increases with families of Indian expatriates leaving for home. “We will launch a media campaign here and in India for our new and previous routes,” said Abdul Aziz Al-Tamimi, deputy director of public relations at Saudi Arabian Airlines.
The airline is also targeting tourists and will be offering tourism packages. Although most passengers to India fly economy class, the airline is not neglecting its business and first class customers. “In addition to laborers, there are many businessmen flying to India. The demand for economy class or first class depends on the season and the destination,” said Al-Tamimi.
The last time Saudia made changes to its flights to India was last year when it increased its flights to Cochin from two to three.
