JEDDAH: Air India (AI) is expanding its services between Saudi Arabia and India. India’s national carrier will operate daily services between Riyadh and Khozhikode and between Dammam and Kochi from Sept. 7. These Airbus 320 flights will operate daily with a configuration of 20 executive and 125 economy class seat capacity.
“These flights have been worked out in a manner that will facilitate easy travel for both inbound and outbound journeys,” Deepak Anand, Air India’s Jeddah-based regional manager for Saudi Arabia, told Arab News yesterday. The timing of the induction of these flights has been chosen to coincide with the ensuing festivals of Onam followed by Eid Al-Fitr holidays,” said Anand who has been with the carrier for 31 years.
With the addition of these 14 flights, Air India’s frequencies to Saudi Arabia increase from the current 33 to 47 flights a week, reflecting a growth of 42.4 percent, he added.
AI also has plans to further enhance capacity by offering another additional fourteen A320 flights every week from November. These will be direct operations between Riyadh and Hyderabad/Chennai and also between Dammam and Hyderabad/Chennai on a daily basis, he added.
The carrier will then be operating 61 flights a week between Saudi Arabia and India, representing an increase of 85 percent in aircraft operations by the winter of 2008. “Apart from providing a daily service to Cochin, the Dammam market will also witness doubling of frequencies to both Kozhikode and Thiruvanantapuram this month.
It also has plans to provide a daily service between Jeddah and Kozhikode and also enhance capacity to offer points in south India including Hyderabad. Similarly, the carrier is also examining the feasibility of enhancing capacity to Mumbai and New Delhi and providing access to the Indian expatriate traffic from the northern Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar as soon as additional aircraft capacity is made available, said Anand.
“The Saudi market is buoyant and growing and so there is enough scope for existing and new carriers to compete and take its share,” Anand said when asked about the plans of a growing number of low-fare international carriers expanding their services to India and India’s domestic carriers like Jet Air operating to the Kingdom.
Air India is also finalizing the schedule of its Haj flights, which start from Oct. 30 in the first phase lasting 33 days.
