RIYADH, 31 August 2005 — Indian Airlines (IA), announced yesterday to start its flights on the Saudi-India sector hopefully before the end of this year to fulfill the long-felt need of over 1.5 million Indian expatriates living in Saudi Arabia. IA will operate four flights a week to the southern Indian city of Hyderabad alone as per the airline’s plan, which is awaiting the nod of the concerned regulatory agencies of the two countries.
“Hyderabad and Calicut are the priority destinations as per the proposal submitted by the Riyadh-based NABA Tourism and Transport Company, the IA’s general service agents (GSA),” said Mohammed Qaiser, IA’s sales and marketing manager. He said: “I am hopeful that IA, the second Indian airline after Air-India, will start its operation later this year.” The announcement comes following a meeting of the high-level officials of IA and the Riyadh-based NABA Tourism and Transport Company in New Delhi. NABA is owned by Prince Naser F. Al-Faisal Al-Saud, who has diverse business interests here and abroad. Asked about the flight frequencies, Qaiser said NABA had proposed to operate six flights a week from Saudi Arabia.
The move to start IA operation, he said, would reduce the woes of the Indian workers, who prefer Indian carriers to fly to their home cities. This will also help to clear the rush especially during summer on account of the reopening of schools after the vacation. Air-India alone operated 30 additional flights to Riyadh, Dubai and Abu Dhabi last year to clear the rush last year. He said IA had also been looking to increase operations to the Gulf region from several points in south India.
“The IA’s plans include operating a three-times-a-week flights on the Madras-Tiruchi-Thiruvananthapuram-Sharjah sector apart from flying twice a week on the Madras-Kozhikode-Sharjah-Kuwait sector,” said Qaiser quoting an IA report. The airline is also looking at the option of operating five-times-a-week on the Khozhikode-Dubai sector and having a daily flight on the Madras-Dubai route. This is in addition to sectors like Kozhikode-Riyadh, Hyderabade-Ahmedabad-Kuwait and Calcutta-Ahmedabad-Sharjah, being considered by the airline.
IA plans to operate most of the services with an Airbus A-320 aircraft except flights to Saudi Arabia for which it plans to use wide body aircraft, said the report. The airline has already requested the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation for permission to start these flights. The airline, which has sent its proposal for acquiring 43 Airbus aircraft to the government, has also drawn up plans to lease aircraft till then. IA has already inducted several leased Airbus A-320 aircraft and plans to start inducting leased Airbus A-319 aircraft later this year. IA offers regular flights to 18 international destinations in 15 countries.
