Sama recently operated their first flight within Saudi, and plan to expand into the Middle East soon. Its encouraging to see all these private airlines pop up through the region, but why are they all budget airlines? (Is Al Etihad private or government owned?)
Their website list 11 destinations all over Saudi. A newspaper article mentions that prices are from 99 SR to 280 SR (doesnt mention if those are for roundtrip or one-way) which is about $27 to $74 (roughly 8 to 21 KD).
Their website isn’t fully up and running right now, which is a disappointment. You cant search for flights or fares at this moment, which doesn’t let me fully compare the prices between sama and Saudi Airlines.
they are running budget airline because it would be crazy to run normal airline in competition with a fully funded government owned airline
and because a budget airline would face less resistant and calls of competition with the government owned airline
but what most do not notice is that on the line they are operating a budget airline is offering the same service a normal priced airline offer
if you travel from jeddah to abha for example Saudi airways isn’t going to offer you lunch or show a movie , why travel on them ?
so we’ll have a jazeera competitor…