Flynas is expanding its presence in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by introducing five new routes from Saudi Arabia, bolstering connectivity within the Middle East’s largest inter-regional market.
The Saudi LCC will commence flights in September to three new destinations, comprising Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) in Dubai, in addition to its current services to Dubai International Airport (DXB) from its bases in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and Madinah.
The move will see the airline offer up to 20 flights per day between the countries, up from 14 at present. Managing Director and CEO Bander Almohanna says the growth aligns with Saudi Arabia’s strategy of connecting the nation with 250 international destinations and accommodating 330 million passengers annually by 2030.
New flights will be available to Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport and Sharjah International Airport from both King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah (JED) and Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz International Airport (MED) in Madinah. A route between DWC and King Khalid International Airport (RUH) in Riyadh will also be launched.
Flynas is currently the fifth-largest operator by seat capacity in the Saudi Arabia-UAE market, commanding a 12.1% share. However, the carrier has expanded its footprint significantly in recent years, growing capacity to about 33,300 two-way weekly seats, OAG Schedules Analyser data shows, up by more than 400% compared with pre-pandemic levels.
Alongside the new destinations, the airline is enhancing an interline partnership with Emirates to open new connections for passengers via DXB. A current interline agreement offers Emirates passengers connections to 15 domestic points in Saudi Arabia on Flynas’ network. However, Flynas passengers will now be able to connect to points in Europe and Asia on Emirates’ extensive network.
Flynas’ network development comes as capacity between Saudi Arabia and the UAE—the largest international intra-regional country pair in the Middle East—is set to rise by more than 13% during the northern summer 2024 season, compared to summer 2019. Schedules filed with OAG show there will be about 8.45 million two-way seats this summer, up from 7.46 million in 2019.
Qatar-Saudi Arabia and Qatar-UAE are projected to become the second- and third-largest markets, each accommodating approximately 2.36 million and 2.12 million seats, respectively. There was no nonstop capacity between these countries during summer 2019 because of the blockade imposed on Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt starting in June 2017. However, a détente was achieved in early 2021.
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