Saudia to take delivery of 29th new aircraft
Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia), the Kingdom’s national carrier, has for the last two years been consistently adding new aircraft to its fleet. It has acquired the latest aircraft types — both narrow and widebody — to meet its expansion plans.
The airline will receive its 29th new aircraft of the year, an A330-300 Regional, with several other aircraft due to be received by the end of next month.
The Airbus A320 family, A330s as well as Boeing 777s and 787 Dreamliners are all currently in Saudia’s fleet mix.
A combined total of 60 new aircraft will have been delivered between last year and end of this year, putting Saudia on track to reach 200 aircraft by 2020.
So far this year the airline has inducted seven A320s, eight A330-Regional; six Boeing 777-300ERs and seven Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. Given the current delivery schedule, a new aircraft is delivered to the airline every ten days, on average.
The airline currently operates to 89 destinations, and has more than 500 departures daily — set to double to more than 1,000 by 2020.
Saudi Arabian Airlines Director General Saleh bin Nasser Al-Jasser said: “The national carrier of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is undergoing rapid growth in all areas across the airline — most notably the fleet — as well as onboard product and services, technological advancements and route expansion.”
He added: “The new fleet acquisition plan has carefully been selected according to the markets in which we serve, with the aim to provide the highest level of comfort and most advanced air travel experience for all of our guests.”
Saudia covers 62 international destinations across four continents, in addition to all 27 domestic airports in Saudi Arabia.
The airline’s Q3 this year was the highest-performing ever in the carrier’s history in terms of the number of international passengers carried. The total number of pilgrims traveling with Saudia also increased by 40 percent this year, compared to last year.
Five new destinations have been added between April and October of this year, including: Portsudan, Multan, Mauritius, Trivandrum and Baghdad.
Saudia carried 30 million passengers in 2016, and was named the 2017 World’s Most Improved Airline by Skytrax, an independent global aviation industry monitor.