RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s first and only budget airline, flynas, aims to grow at least 20 percent annually and expects to turn profitable in 2014 after seven years of losses, the company’s chief executive said.
More than 64 million passengers passed through Saudi Arabia’s 28 airports in 2012, up nearly 19 percent from 2011, according to the latest data available from the General Authority of Civil Aviation. But the kingdom, the biggest Arab economy and the largest country in the Gulf geographically, still has one of the smallest airline networks in the region relative to its size.
Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia), the national carrier, and privately held flynas, launched in 2007, are currently the only options for flying domestically within the country, and they are struggling to keep up with demand.
Several other domestic airlines, including a subsidiary of Qatar Airways, are expected to start flying in the next year or two as a result of deregulation.
But private carriers have had trouble boosting their profit margins because of price caps on domestic flights and high operating costs. In 2010, SAMA Airlines was forced to halt operations after incurring a loss of about $300m.
“Until now we are actually not making a profit, but we hope to cross over this year. We have to grow very quickly and get critical mass,” flynas CEO Raja Azmi said in an interview.
“We need to grow at least 20 percent a year. God willing, we hope to make a profit this year — it won’t be much but it will be a profit.” Riyadh-based flynas is 37 percent owned by Saudi investment firm Kingdom Holding and the rest by National Airline Services Holding.
Flynas currently carries three million passengers annually and claims 15-18 percent of the domestic air travel market; its growth plan envisages achieving a market share of 30 percent over the next two years and passenger numbers hitting 20 million annually by 2020, Azmi said.
Azmi declined to specify how much the company would invest in growth. The growth plan will focus on increasing the number of flights to the airline’s 21 current destinations and targeting the long-haul sector with five to six new destinations including London, Manchester, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, using the Red Sea city of Jeddah as a hub.
Reuters
