Saudia makes record on-time performance

Saudi Arabian Airlines yesterday announced a record on-time performance of 92.18 percent — its highest in 15 years — in both domestic and international flights last month.
“Our outstanding performance in September 2012 represents a new addition to our successes,” said Khaled Al-Molhem, Director General of the airline.
During the month of September, Saudia carried around 1.8 million passengers on 14,007 flights in contrast to13,524 flights during the same month last year, he said.
“The average on-time performance of flights during September 2012 was 92.18 percent compared to 83.96 percent during the same month last year, achieving an increase of 8.22 percent,” the Director General said.
A-Molhem also reported big growth in the domestic sector as Saudia operated 9,321 flights between the Kingdom’s cities, carrying more than 1.1 million passengers, whilst it operated 8,659 flights during the same period in 2011.
During the last nine months, Saudia transported more than 18.2 million passengers on 127,200 flights compared to 16 million during the same period in 2011, Al-Molhem said.
“The number of passengers increased by 14.26 percent,” he pointed out. He attributed the increase to the arrival of the newly ordered Airbus and Boeing aircrafts that have started operating domestic and international flights.
He said the airline would continue to modernize its fleet by acquiring state-of-the-art aircraft and improve its passenger services by adopting the industry’s best practices.