Saudi national carrier flynas announced the launch of its first flights to Cairo International Airport as part of its expansion plans within Egypt.

With the launch of Cairo, flynas claims it becomes the only foreign carrier serving 7 destinations within the country.

The announcement was made at a press conference in the Egyptian capital.

Flights will be operated using an Airbus A330 (12 seats in Business Class, 24 in Economy Plus, and 291 in Economy Class) and A320 (8 seats in Business and 156 in Economy).”

Bander Al-Mohanna, deputy CEO of NAS Holding, said: “The launch of daily flights to Cairo is a key milestone given the strong demand for both inbound and outbound traffic between Egypt and Saudi Arabia.”

Al-Mohanna added: “The addition of Cairo expands flynas’ existing Egyptian route network of Alexandria, Assiut, Sohag, Luxor, Sharm El Sheikh and Aswan, making it one of the biggest regional players serving Egypt and Saudi Arabia. flynas currently operates 44 flights per week.”

The two countries enjoy historically strong bilateral ties in financial investment, education, tourism, the labor market and trade.

More than 1 million Egyptians travel to Saudi Arabia annually on pilgrimages for Haj and Umrah, making it one of the largest religious tourism markets in the world. In addition, Saudi Arabia is home to nearly 2 million Egyptians who live and work in the Kingdom across a number of different sectors.

“We have decided to deploy an Airbus A330 and A320 aircraft on the Cairo route because we consider it to be a strategic destination for flynas,” said Sherif Amer, director of sales at flynas.

“flynas is steadily growing into one of the largest airlines in the region with ambitions to grow even further,” commented Wael Al-Sarhan, director of marketing and communication, flynas.