Saudi Arabian Airlines has started rescheduling flights following the Kingdom’s decision to change the weekend to Friday and Saturday.
Other airlines, including Qatar, Emirates, Nasair and flydubai, have yet to make changes.
Abdullah Al-Ajhar, vice president for public relations at Saudi Arabian Airlines, said that Saudia formed a work-team to start changing the flight schedules because most Saudis fly on weekends.
He said Saudis previously traveled on Wednesdays and then returned home on Fridays. “Now our team will be rescheduling the flights and confirming the new schedule and bookings with passengers.” Al-Ajhar said the new weekend would not affect the number of Saudia flights operating this summer.
Qatar Airways’ corporate communication manager, Khalid Aloush, said.
“We already operate 65 flights to and from Saudi Arabia a week. We have several daily flights, so it is a very simple process to change bookings when needed. So far, we have not received any notifications (for changes) yet.”
Emirates Airline, which operates 69 flights to Riyadh, Dammam, Madinah and Jeddah using the giant Airbus 380, announced that it is studying the rescheduling of flights to Saudi Arabia.
The spokesman said the schedule would not be changed at the moment, but working hours would be amended to ensure uninterrupted customer service.
“The company is considering the needs of the market, so it will keep watching its operations in Saudi Arabia to see if the need to change will arise or not,” he said.
A flydubai spokesman said the airline has nine scheduled flights to Saudi cities, six of them daily flights. The carrier is looking to increasing the number of existing flights to three extra destinations, to meet the expected demand because of the changing weekend.
Majeda Al-Saedi, a travel officer for Al-Tayyar group, who arranges bookings for company employees, said that she has not received any new flight schedules.
“We have not received any update from the companies that we are working with. Saudia and Nasair have not asked for any changes yet.”
She said there was likely to be changes next week when the new weekend kicks in.
Nasair is expecting greater demand for flights this week because many employees have one extra day off. The company is offering a 30 percent discount on local and international flights.
