Saudi Arabian Airlines has completed preparations for the launch of its flights to the Canadian city of Toronto beginning Oct. 28 as part of its strategic plan to expand its international operations.

“We are now in the process of preparing flight schedules and setting up the airline’s operations office at Toronto International Airport,” said Khaled Al-Molhem, director general of the national carrier.

“Our new flight to Toronto is part of our endeavor to strengthen our international presence and serve various groups of passengers including Saudi students who are pursuing higher studies in Canadian universities on King Abdullah Foreign Scholarship Program,” he said.

The new flight also aims at meeting the requirements of Haj and Umrah pilgrims who come to Saudi Arabia from Canada and boosting business and tourism relations with Canada, the Saudia chief said, adding that it would also cater to the needs of transit passengers who travel from King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah.

He said Saudia will be operating direct flights to Toronto, saving time and energy for travelers. In the initial stage, Saudia will operate three flights weekly — Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays — and the flight would take 13 1/2 hours. The outgoing flight SV0060 will take off from Riyadh for Toronto via Jeddah while the return flight SV0061 will follow the route Toronto-Jeddah-Riyadh route.

Saudia will be using Boeing 777-200 aircraft for its Toronto flights. The aircraft has 24 seats in the First Class, 38 seats in Business Class and 170 seats in Guest Class. All classes of the aircraft are designed to provide passengers with comfort with advanced audio-visual systems offering a variety of attractive entertainment programs.

Saudia intends to operate another flight to Los Angeles in the spring of 2014, which will be the airline’s third destination in the United States after Washington and New York.