<a href="https://www.mid-day.com/business/business-news/article/air-india-and-saudia-sign-mou-to-expand-strategic-cooperation-codeshare-agreement-23641230" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">Saudi Arabian aviation major Saudia Group</a>'s low-cost arm flyadeal has entered the Mumbai market with a non-stop flight from Riyadh, adding over 7,400 seats a month between the two cities.
The airline also said that it is very bullish about India on account of its huge population, growth and outbound as well as inbound travel.
Flyadeal commenced its five-times-a-week services to Mumbai from Riyadh on Saturday with an A320neo aircraft, making it the airline's second destination in India, after the launch of its services to Hyderabad in July.
"We are very bullish. No airline in this part of the world can afford not to be bullish on India because it is a huge population, huge growth, huge on-bound travel, huge inbound travel," Sanjiv Kapoor, acting CEO of flyadeal and Executive Vice President for strategies at Saudia Group, told PTI.
"India is key to the success of airline industries in this part of the world for sure, he said and added, "if you are not bullish on India then you are not doing something right."
Established in 2017, the Riyadh-based carrier flies to more than 40 seasonal and year-round destinations across Saudi Arabia and West Asia, Europe, North Africa and South Asia from its four bases <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/news/india-news/article/us-israel-attack-iran-flights-between-india-and-riyadh-resume-over-1-5-lakh-passengers-have-arrived-from-gulf-says-moca-23620665" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">Riyadh, Jeddah</a>, Madinah and Dammam with a fleet of 47 Airbus A320 aircraft.
By 2030, in line with Saudi Vision 2030, the airline expects to more than double its network and fleet to over 100 destinations and aircraft, respectively. Aircraft additions include single-aisle Airbus A321neos and widebody A330-900neos joining the fleet from 2027.
India entry, which comes almost a decade after the airline came into being, is a part of the Saudi national aviation strategy, which targets tripling annual passenger volumes from around 100 million to 330 million by 2030, more than doubling the number of international destinations served from Saudi Arabia.
"The reason Flydeal had not come to India yet is that our aircraft were not configured for the range to fly. We had low-range aircraft. We made the adjustments to the aircraft, etc. So now we have aircraft that can make it to India; otherwise we would have come earlier," said Kapoor.
"We started it with oil prices being double of what they were in March because of our abolitionism in India; the fact that this is a long-term play, it's not a short-term play," he said.
Kapoor said that flyadeal intends to fly to more cities wherever there is demand for low fares for travel to and from Saudi Arabia. "For India, I think on a shortlist, as we get more aircraft and fuel prices hopefully become better, Lucknow and Calicut are on the shortlist, potentially Delhi, and there are a few more depending on bilaterals that we are looking at, and depending on the range of the aircraft."
Stations like Chennai and Calcutta are not currently bilateral. "But if it was to be added, at Chennai we need longer range aircraft, but we have big plans."
Even in a place like Delhi or Mumbai or Bengaluru, where there is high corporate demand and high yield demand, there is also low fare demand. So you will see flyadeal operating maybe in airports along with Saudi Arabia, he said.
"As the third-largest<a href="https://www.mid-day.com/mumbai/mumbai-news/article/ai-s-low-cost-carrier-wants-crew-to-get-uniforms-stitched-for-low-cost-too-16352161" target="_blank" rel="none noopener"> low-cost airline</a> in the Middle East region, we are committed to strengthening our presence in India, and Mumbai is an important milestone in that journey. Beyond connecting Mumbai with Saudi Arabia's capital, the new service also opens up convenient access to destinations across the Kingdom through seamless onward connections on a single booking," he added.
The new flights are conveniently timed to provide a mid-morning arrival into Riyadh from Mumbai and, likewise, a morning arrival into Mumbai from Riyadh, making the flight schedule suitable for travellers looking to connect seamlessly to and from popular destinations within Saudi Arabia, including Abha, Dammam, Jeddah, and Madinah on a single booking with a through fare and with baggage checked through to the final destination.
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