Emirates joins Riyadh Travel Fair

Saudi Arabia is a major market for Emirates and the only country in the Middle East served by our flagship aircraft, the A380," said a senior airline executive.
“This is a clear indication of the importance of the Saudi market, where we are now up to 69 flights a week from four points across the Kingdom, including four daily flights from Riyadh," said Mohammad Bin Hafiz, district manager for Riyadh.
"All these flights are non-stop to Dubai where they connect with our impressive global network of 132 destinations,” he said.
Emirates had a stand presence for the first time at the Riyadh Travel Fair 2013 that took place in Riyadh.
Concourse A in Dubai, the world’s first purpose built A380 concourse, the airline’s new route launches and its 69 weekly flights from Saudi Arabia were among topics scheduled for discussion at the Emirates’ stand.
The Emirates’ team was led by Mohammad Bin Hafiz.
Staff from sales, reservations, ticketing and Emirates Holidays were also present.
Recently, Emirates Holidays, the airline’s tour operating arm, announced it was making a series of changes under Marc Bennett, Emirates’ new divisional senior vice president, destination and leisure management.
The Riyadh Travel Fair was attended by the leading travel and tourism companies from within Saudi and beyond.
Emirates has 150 staff in the Kingdom supporting areas such as sales, ticketing, reservations, cargo operations and finance.
In 2012, Emirates was awarded the Best Arab Airline 2012 award by Sabq newspaper at the Sabq Tourism Awards.
Emirates’ history in Saudi Arabia dates back to 1989 when it launched flights to Jeddah.
The airline was the first to introduce an A380 into the Kingdom by upgrading Jeddah to a double decker service in 2010.
Emirates other Saudi gateways came in 1990 with Riyadh, Dammam followed in 1993 and services to Medina started in 2010.
Next year, Emirates will mark 25 years of operations to Saudi Arabia.
Key passenger markets for the Kingdom include the UAE, Far East, South Asian sub-continent, Europe, North America, Australia and China.
Emirates SkyCargo, the freight division of Emirates, can offer more than 100 tonnes of cargo capacity daily on flights leaving KSA.
Commodities on the move with Emirates SkyCargo include pharmaceutical products, dates, industrial products, mobile phones, machinery, spare parts and personal effects.