SAUDIA Group Announces International Expansion With 25 New Destinations in 2023, Connecting the World to Saudi Arabia

INDUSTRY.co.id - 23 March 2023, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabian Airlines (SAUDIA) and flyadeal set course to add 25 new destinations in 2023 on SAUDIA Group Network:

- Beijing, China

- Birmingham, United Kingdom

- Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

- Djibouti

- Chittagong, Bangladesh

- Johannesburg, South Africa

- Kano, Nigeria

 - Baghdad, Iraq

- London Gatwick, United Kingdom

- Nice, France

- Lisbon, Portugal

- Malaga, Spain

- Mykonos, Greece

- Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt

- Tbilisi, Georgia

- Baku, Azerbaijan

- Trabzon, Turkey

- Izmir, Turkey

- Antalya, Turkey

- Bodrum, Turkey

- Sarajevo, Bosnia

- Heraklion, Greece

- Rhodes, Greece

- Larnaca, Cyprus

- Tivat, Montenegro

All new routes are set to begin throughout 2023. The airlines will publish more schedule details on announced destinations soon.

SAUDIA Group Director General, H.E. Engineer Ibrahim Al-Omar commented on the international network expansion: “SAUDIA Group has been carrying the kingdom’s ambitions, values and traditions across every corner of its network, as it flies the nation's flag around the world. These new destinations will offer greater access and choices to our guests. Given the increase in demand for international travel, this is the right time to expand our global network in new, exciting ways.

SAUDIA has recently launched "Your Ticket Your Visa" in January. The first-of-its-kind service provides guests with even easier access to the Kingdom through a digital integration system that links transit visas with flight tickets. The new service is aimed to encourage passengers to perform Umrah, visit key destinations and attend events during their transit in the Kingdom.

The new service, which covers all international airports in the Kingdom, will allow guests to stay in the Kingdom for up to 96 hours, during which they can travel around the Kingdom and perform Umrah. The digital integration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs facilitates the issuing of the transit visa and links it to the SAUDIA flight ticket within three minutes.

SAUDIA started in 1945 with a single twin-engine DC-3 (Dakota) given to King Abdul Aziz as a gift by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This was followed months later with the purchase of two more DC-3s, forming the nucleus of what would soon become one of the world’s largest airlines.

Today SAUDIA has 142 aircraft, including the latest and most advanced wide-bodied jets presently available: B787-9, B777-300ER, Airbus A320-200, Airbus A321, and Airbus A330-300. Over the past year, SAUDIA’s initiatives have earned it recognition as a 5-Star Global Airline and a DIAMOND rating in the APEX Health Safety category.

Flyadeal’s first flight took off from Jeddah to Riyadh on Saudi National day, September 23, 2017. It was the first airline in the world to launch purely through digital channels, selling 10 thousand seats within the first 24 hours of going on sale.

The low-cost carrier’s network started with a route from Jeddah to Riyadh, and today, their network of flights reaches 27 domestic, international, and seasonal stations.