HiJazzey From Saudi Arabia, joined Sep 2005, 788 posts, RR: 1 Posted (7 years 6 months 4 days 14 hours ago) and read 1728 times:
NAS has been pretty busy these last few days. First they announced the order of 5 A318 Elites with option of 5, that was followed by an order for 3 Gulfstream G350s. Today they unveiled plans to launched a new LCC serving the Saudi market. They expect it to be running by Summer 2006. Not many details as yet.
Quote: He said the airline will start flying in the summer of 2006 between major cities including Riyadh and the Red Sea port city of Jeddah where NAS is based. It will operate with 16 planes by 2011, he added.
Cool. I think this new airline will be a big threat to Air Arabia. Thy'll have a monopoly on the domestic Saudi LCC market and if they get slots to DXB they can really hurt them on Saudi-UAE routes.
I wonder what their initial routes will be. RUH-JED is a certain. AHB DMM and MED should see service too. I'm sure they'll add CAI, DXB, and BEY when they go international
EurostarVA From Bahrain, joined May 2002, 1296 posts, RR: 8 Reply 2, posted (7 years 6 months 3 days 10 hours ago) and read 1625 times:
This is a welcome development indeed. Travelers will be delighted to have a choice when traveling by air.
This will stimulate and grow the industry further. Hopefully, the new airline will start on a sound footing and focus on customer service (on the ground and inflight), quality and provide sufficient daily frequencies on the trunk routes, things that are all inexistant at Saudi Arabian Airlines, which has enjoyed a monopoly for far too long!
NAS has been reported in the press today to be in final negotiations with Airbus for the purchase of four (4) brand new Airbus A320s for its new low-cost carrier.
This is an interesting development, as Saudi travelers consider the narrow body 737 and MD90s to be 'too small for their comfort'. Interesting to see if this new low-cost carrier will ever consider wide-body aircraft and whether it will fit in their business plan.
Good luck to them! I will post further developments on this thread, including the source for the Airbus order, shortly.
HiJazzey From Saudi Arabia, joined Sep 2005, 788 posts, RR: 1 Reply 3, posted (7 years 6 months 3 days 10 hours ago) and read 1609 times:
Hi EurostarVA,
I think an Airbus order is a banker. They already operate a large number of them. As for the issue of Saudis and narrowbodies, I think it's more to do with the MD90s being cramped and uncomfortable (they're really awful) than hating narrowbodies in general. The A320s have large spacious cabins, so I don't think it will be a problem. Besides, this is an LCC .
Sponsor Message: 
From Saudi Arabia, joined Sep 2005, 788 posts, 
From Bahrain, joined May 2002, 1296 posts, 
.
Printer friendly format 
