Saudia carries 14 million passengers in six months

Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) carried more than 14 million passengers on 94,000 flights during the first six months of this year, Acting Director General Abdul Aziz Al-Hazmi said on Tuesday. “During the same period we have achieved an on-time performance of 90.06 percent,” he said.
There was 11 percent increase in the number of passengers carried during the reporting period as it rose from 12,677,839 to 14,082,198. The number of flights operated by the airline during the period jumped by 8 percent from 87,389 to 94,069, he said.
Speaking about half yearly performance in the domestic sector, Al-Hazmi said Saudia carried 7.84 million passengers between the Kingdom’s cities against 7.41 million during the same period in 2013. It operated 59,404 domestic flights during the first half with an on-time performance of 90.83 percent.
Al-Hazmi highlighted the remarkable progress achieved by the domestic sector where the number of passengers grew by 5.8 percent and number of flights four percent compared to last year. “This reflects the success of our operation strategy, increasing flights between the major cities of Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Madinah and Abha,” he said.
Saudia has increased the number of its flights during the ongoing summer season to meet the needs of passengers and redistributed flights to different Saudi cities. “The domestic sector accounted for 67.89 percent of flights and 55.71 percent of passengers during the first half of 2014,” he pointed out.
On the international sector, Saudia carried 6.23 million passengers during the first half against 5.26 million during the same period in 2013, with an increase of 18.46 percent or 971,786 passengers. They were carried on 28,098 flights compared to 25,024 flights with an increase of 12 percent.
Al-Hazmi commended Saudia executives and employees for their hard work. “The remarkable increase in flights and passengers also came as a result of good planning, reducing the number of vacant seats. We have also increased the numbers of domestic and international flights,” he said.
He also underscored the success of the airline’s summer plan, adding that during the past month it carried a large number of passengers due to the peak Umrah season in Ramadan. “We have deployed senior executives at all major stations to supervise operations in the summer season.”
The airline has established special counters at all stations to take care of waitlisted passengers and met all requirements of operations, maintenance, catering, ground services and inflight services, he said.
“This good half yearly performance will have a positive impact on operations in the summer season, which continues until the end of August,” Al-Hazmi said. The arrival of new aircraft from Boeing and Airbus has played a big role in strengthening Saudia’s operations. The national flag carrier has received 74 of 90 state-of-the-art aircraft it had ordered from Airbus and Boeing.