RIYADH: British Airways (BA) has postponed the resumption of its flights to the Kingdom from March 29 to May 31.
The airline announced in November last year that it was resuming flights to Saudi Arabia and introduced promotional fares.
According to a statement issued yesterday, the United Kingdom’s flagship carrier revealed that the process of setting up two new stations in the country has taken longer than originally envisaged. “Saudi Arabia is an important market for British Airways and we are keen to ensure the service we offer our customers meets the high levels we know they expect,” the statement said.
All customers booked to travel between March 30 and May 31 on BA’s Riyadh and Jeddah services will be offered full refunds or the chance to rebook once services commence. The airline will fly five times a week from both Riyadh and Jeddah to Heathrow Terminal 5. BA will be flying to Riyadh a Boeing 777 and to Jeddah a Boeing 767. The airline suspended its services to Saudi Arabia in March 2005 due to poor commercial performance on the route. At the time, the airline was operating seven flights a week to the Kingdom — four to Jeddah and three to Riyadh. It was one of the oldest airlines operating to Saudi cities and had been flying to the Kingdom since 1930. Announcing the re-launch of the flights to the Kingdom in November, Robert Boyle, British Airways’ commercial director, said, “Resuming these flights makes commercial sense. The oil market is increasingly important globally and inward investment into Saudi Arabia has risen considerably in the last couple of years. We can start these flights now because the aviation market between Britain and Saudi Arabia has recently been liberalized.”
