Speaking to Arab News after presiding over a meeting of the first regional sales meeting here Tuesday, he said Saudia’s privatization program was progressing well as planned. “We have already privatized the catering and cargo sectors. Privatization of ground services will be completed next month,” he added.

Asked about privatization of the core aviation unit, the deputy director general said: “We are making preparations for the privatization of the airline by modernizing its fleet and developing its technical infrastructure.”

Before that the organization intends to privatize Prince Sultan Aviation Academy as well as the technical and maintenance sector.

Al-Hazmi underscored the airline’s efforts to improve services to passengers. “We have started yielding fruits of our strategic plans, most importantly our fleet modernization and provision of better services on board our flights.Ensuring the quality of service has been our main aim,” the deputy director general said. Saudia has achieved a 90 percent on-time performance rate.

Speaking about the new mobile phone service, he said the first phase would include provision of services such as issuance of boarding passes, selection of seats, display of flight schedules and actual times for arrival and departure of flights. In the second phase, services such as issuance of tickets, reservation of seats, payment through Sadad will be made available, he said.

“We will re-introduce Saudia World Holiday program in March,” he added.

The airline aims to achieve five main objectives this year: Improvement of services, increase in operational efficiency, increase in organizational efficiency, increase profits and joining of a strategic alliance. “We should know that customers are looking for distinguished services. They want their travel procedures to be completed quickly and efficiently,” he told the meeting.

Al-Hazmi expects tremendous improvement in Saudia’s services with the arrival of newly purchased planes. It has signed deals with Airbus and Boeing companies to purchase 88 new aircraft including 35 A320s, 15 A321s, eight A330s and 22 Boeing 777s and eight Boeing Dreamliners.

“Saudia is aiming qualitative improvement in services in order to meet passenger requirements and confront regional and global challenges,” Al-Hazmi said. He also spoke about the agreement with SkyTeam adding that it would help provide better connection flights to passengers traveling to destinations all over the world. He said Saudia would become a full member of the global alliance by the middle of next year after signing accords with member airlines.

Spelling out major achievements of 2010, he said during the year Saudia successfully shifted to the advanced Amadeus passenger management system, renovated 500 offices inside and outside the Kingdom, signed agreements with 70 airline companies and installed 84 automatic service machines at airports and sales offices. “We have also transformed call centers into ticket sales outlets.” Saudia has achieved 100 percent Saudization of its staff.