Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia to take the plunge and open domestic market

Saudi Arabia’s newly independent General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) has confirmed that it will go ahead with a radical move to open its domestic skies to foreign carriers as its seeks to breathe new life into the country’s moribund domestic air travel market and increase the Kingdom’s air transport links with the rest of the world. 

In a 25-Dec-2011 statement, the GACA announced it would seek applications from both Saudi and foreign airline companies, as well as foreign investors, for licences to operate domestic and international flights from Saudi airports. The GACA hopes to launch the tender process in late Jan-2012, the end of the Islamic calendar year.

Saudi Arabia looks at opening domestic market to GCC airlines

The Saudi Arabian General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) has confirmed it is considering opening its skies to carriers from other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member nations, in a radical attempt to improve the domestic aviation market in the country. In mid Aug-2011, a spokesman for the GACA stated the body is now “seriously considering” a proposal that would open up the Saudi domestic market to foreign competition.

Arab unrest puts brakes on Air Arabia's Jordan expansion

The ripples from the Arab Spring continue to spread. Air Arabia, the largest LCC in the Middle East, announced in Jun-2011 that it would delay the launch of its Jordanian JV due to the downturn in traffic in the region, as well as higher oil prices. While the political and social environment in Jordan is described by the carrier as “stable”, Syria, Bahrain, Egypt and Tunisia still have not resolved local political instability.

Dubai Airports has another tilt at Gulf airspace management

Air traffic management is the single greatest threat to the development of aviation in the Middle East. At least, this is the opinion of Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths, who has once again raised the prospect that congestion from building traffic may throttle growth not only in Dubai and the UAE, but also across the region if something does not change in the next few years.

Saudi Arabian Airlines privatisation deadline announced

Saudi Arabian Airlines plans to complete its long-running and much delayed privatisation of its mainline passenger business by the end of 2Q2013. The privatisation process has been going on in some form since 2000 and at several points has looked in danger of dragging on until economic conditions improved and the airline had completed its modernisation programme or even being abandoned altogether.

Is Saudi Arabia's last LCC nasair set to join Sama?

Saudi Arabia’s LCC experiment may be drawing to an unwelcome close. nasair, the kingdom’s first – and now sole surviving – LCC announced it has suffered a 1Q2011 loss, due to the troubled situation in the Middle East and North Africa reducing passenger traffic and the increasing price of oil.