Saudi Arabian Airlines resumes Vienna services

Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) relaunched direct flights to Vienna June 16, after an eight-year gap.

The year-round 4X-weekly Jeddah-Riyadh-Vienna Airbus A320 service should become daily within one year, when the carrier considers switching to a widebody aircraft, CEO Jaan Albrecht told ATW.

Vienna joins a range of other new European routes this summer season:

• 4X-weekly Malaga services (Spain); each 2X-weekly from Jeddah and Riyadh, from June 9-Sept. 10.
• Daily seasonal services to Izmir (Turkey); 4X-weekly from Jeddah; 3X-weekly from Riyadh, from June 10-Sept. 9.
• Daily seasonal flights to Moscow Vnukovo (Russia); 4X-weekly from Riyadh, 3X-weekly from Jeddah, from June 12-27.

“In the last two years we have added 62 new aircraft; this year there will be a total of 18 deliveries,” Albrecht said. “That means we added 80 new aircraft in three years—aircraft like Airbus A330s and A320s, and Boeing 787s and 777s. Twenty of those new aircraft are for replacement, the rest are for growth,” he said.

Source: atwonline