The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia plans to launch a new national airline to compete with Emirates Airlines and Qatar Airways, by exploiting international transit passenger traffic.
According to sources, the new airline targets international routes and provides transit connections to compete with Gulf carriers.
Although the Saudi authorities announced the new airline, they did not specify the date of its official launch.
On Tuesday, June 29, the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched a national strategy for transport and logistics.
The strategy aims to consolidate the Kingdom’s position as a global logistics center linking the three continents (Asia, Africa and Europe), improve services and all means of transportation, and make the Kingdom become the fifth largest global center for transit movement.
A package of possible major projects to achieve economic and social goals are to be implemented within the strategy, which adopts effective governance models to enhance institutional work in the transport system.
Economic openness
The Kingdom is witnessing a wide economic openness in line with Vision 2030 launched by the Saudi young Crown Prince. Vision 2030 aims at reducing the dependence of the Saudi economy on oil by diversifying resources.
Saudi Arabian Airlines is the Saudi national airline, with a 5-star aviation rating, and a member of the Arab Air Transport Association. It takes King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah as its main center of operations, in addition to its other branches in Riyadh, Madinah and Dammam.
Saudia also offers its services around 100 destinations in Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. Every three minutes a Saudi Airlines plane takes off.
It should be noted that flights between Qatar on a hand and Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt on the other resumed after the quartet announced the opening of the airspace to the Qatari aviation, in addition to the opening of all sea and land borders.
