“We pay 600 million riyals (annually) for fuel compared to what Saudi Airlines pays, which is 60 millions riyals,” said Suliman Al-Hamdan, CEO of Nas Holding, during a press conference recently in Istanbul where Nas announced three new destination there. "We demand justice and fairness by receiving the same treatment as Saudi Airlines when it comes to fuel prices."
The CEO said fuel prices in the Kingdom are between 18 and 22 percent higher compared to prices in neighboring Gulf countries.
"It’s even cheaper in Sudan by 20 percent,” he added, pointing out that the cost of purchasing and importing that fuel is prohibitively expensive.
“This is the main reason behind the expansion to international destinations," said Al-Hamdan. "The domestic problems we face forced the shareholders to inject and expand internationally to cover up for the losses, and to gain from international flights."
Al-Hamdan called on Saudi authorities to find solutions to the problem the domestic air transport industry is facing.
“We have been talking about this problem at open events, economic forums and to the media, but unfortunately we have not found a solution and the accumulated losses has worn out the company's capital -- but nevertheless I'm still optimistic,” he said.
Nasair consumes about 13 million liters of fuel per month at a cost ranging between SR47 million and SR50 million.
Nasair began flying to Istanbul, Adana and Antakya in March as part of the carriers strategy to offset domestic losses with regional expansion outside of Saudi Arabia. The airline operates 11 weekly flights from Riyadh and Jeddah airports reaching the three Turkish locations.
“We are now adding four more flights to the schedule in accordance with travelers' demand,” said Al-Hamdan.
