[AMcWhirter]

As many of you will have read on our news pages the carriers of Saudi Arabia have expansion plans.

Riyadh Air, which has yet to launch, has big plans of its own but Saudia too is wasting no time.

For Summer 24 Saudia will almost double the number of flights it operates from London LHR to Jeddah.

From late April Saudia will increase flight frequency on the route from eight to 14 flights a week.

Schedules are posted on the carrier’s website.

It’s believed the slots for these six extra flights are being leased from Virgin Atlantic.

[Mark]

Always enjoyed Saudia service.

[BackOfThePlane]

Does that mean….

1. Virgin can make more from leasing slots to Saudia than they can operating flights.

OR

2. This is simply because Virgin are awaiting deliveries of new aircraft. If so, is this slot lease short term and what do Saudia do when Virgin want their slots back.

One imagines that Riyadh Air will also want as many slots as they can get at Heathrow…..and will be prepared to pay big.

1 user thanked author for this post.

AMcWhirter

[AMcWhirter]

Confirmation that the slot is leased from VS ia awaited. But if true it would be for summer 2024.

Likewise for summer 2024 VS has leased its LHR-TLV slot pair to Emirates.

Emirates will use the above VS slot pair for flights EK41 and EK42 during summer 2024.

For the current winter season only Cathay Pacific had leased slots for EK41 and 42 to Emirates.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Abidjan, cwoodward, AndrewinHK

[first_class_please]

I expect this is to support the Hajj traffic, with Hajj being in June this year.

[alainboy56]

@Mark

Yes, and I do so like the wonderful space at the back of the central rows of seats on the B777s

[persiantraveller]

Saudi Arabian Airlines service is horrible, from their rancid lounge food and horrid on-board catering to the lack of alcohol and unfriendly snotty snob locals serving you at the expense of their stressed immigrant female counterparts… um, no thank you!

2 users thanked author for this post.

hyphen33, sparkyflier

[cwoodward]

Given that the airlines reputation was so poor that it needed to change its name (but not its government ownership) from Saudi Arabian Airlines to Saudia in an attempt to get ‘bums-on-seats’ it is unsurprising that nothing has changed for the better since I flew with them many years ago.
Given the ownership, politics and crew structure I cant see anything changing for the better in the foreseeable future unless they change to an all expat cabin crew structure – which is unlikely I believe to happen

2 users thanked author for this post.

hyphen33, sparkyflier

[BackOfThePlane]

@cwoodward – which is why it will be so interesting to see what Riyadh Air do in terms of crew, booze, film censorship etc.

1 user thanked author for this post.

sparkyflier

[alainboy56]

@persiantraveller/cwoodward/BackOfThePlane

Congrats for stating it as it is – usually when I do these things, I get my head bitten off by others who do not wish to be offended by such truths.
SAUDIA is a reflection on KSA, so what does one expect and for sure RIYADH AIR will be absolutely more of the same – in fact I have read they will probably absorb SAUDIA.
Something else that no Western politician or Journo seems capable of understanding …. The PIF IS THE GOV’T, so whether it be Newcastle Utd FC, the LIV Golf Tour or in this case RIYADH AIR, its all being run by The Big Boss ……………..

Therefore, as is a common expression used in these parts in the souqs/markets “Same Same Sir ….. but different” —– a kind of continuous oxymoron.
There will be NO alcohol, the male employees will be Saudis as that is now law, even for private companies (not only in KSA, but increasingly UAE and others) and companies are fined heavily if they do not comply. The Females also need work of course and are even far more intelligent and educated, however they are increasingly filling front desk roles in hotels, and for example Airport Immigration desks etc i.e. on the ground in KSA.
Travelling abroad, (needing a passport – i.e. permission), staying in foreign hotels (with Bars/Nightclubs/Casinos and with strange men all around) is altogether a step too far for their society. (not for the girls I hasten to add, but for their fathers and brothers, that is an intolerable scenario)

5 users thanked author for this post.

red_robbo, Jacob, AMcWhirter, ImissConcorde, sparkyflier

[FormerBA]

Saudia was the official name of the airlines in 1984! I know as I have still have my ticket from that time.

LHR to JED Y class at a costs of a staggering £382 one way

SV040 7 Oct 1984 at 12.30.

[persiantraveller]

@cwoodward – True. Saudi Arabian or Saudia, it’s always the same old, bad attitude and service of SV. I’m sorry, but I’ve never experienced anything good with that airline.

[persiantraveller]

@alainboy56 I’m glad we agree. Very true, the PIF is the main powerhouse that is running everything, all of these new investments, companies, event sponsorships (I am fond of tennis and they are sponsoring just about any tournament now and not just that but much more), and major projects… where do you think that funding is coming from?! I’m sure our European politicians know, but they’re just brainwashed and blinded by the sheer glitz-glam and money of wealthy sheikhs (I love the Gulf region but also don’t fail to see the truth in a balanced and objective manner, I have also lived in far more liberal DXB). My point isn’t promoting the demise and downfall of Saudi Arabia, not at all. I actually like GCC and want Saudi Arabia, just like most other countries, to be successful of course, but in a legal/ethical/positive way. The PIF is doing great, and good for them honestly. I just don’t like few things about them like Saudia Airlines and their attitude, but every country has its problems.

Anyway, I actually didn’t hear anything about RIA absorbing SV… I actually thought RIA was going to be a new actually global airline that would offer alcohol, decent IFE, westernised or more international crew to actually compete with the ME3, but what you said doesn’t sound too far-fetched I’m afraid! “Same-same but different” as you said is the perfect (and humorous) way to describe the situation, and yes, I’ve heard this expression countless times during my time here in the Gulf. Absolutely hilarious.

Finally, what you said about there being more and more locals, that is also true. It has always existed in the GCC. They usually have the locals doing all the government related jobs and won’t give us (expats) the nationality to preserve their “national identity” and culture, but they need the expats to do the other work because they simply don’t have enough people. I do find that’s actually a positive change, especially for the women, bringing more locals to work and increasing the local “feel” will help a lot both for tourism and on the economic front. One thing that helps this is also local citizen demographic growth, as GCC populations have recently started to increase in number of people happening since a few years, so of course they will all need to find work. They made it law some time ago and this is fitting with their programmes in all GCC countries for “localisation” (Emiratisation, Saudization, Qatarisation, Omanisation, etc…), you just see it more in Saudi because they have more locals to expats ratio there and it’s on a different scale while in Dubai there are less locals and many more expats/migrants. Sorry for the lengthy but exhaustive message, hope it was informative.

1 user thanked author for this post.

alainboy56

[persiantraveller]

@FormerBA – Interesting piece of history you have there! Yes, Saudia was actually the official name of the airline before they changed it in the early 2000s to Saudi Arabian Airlines only to change it back to “Saudia” in 2012/2013 to coincide with SV’s entry into the SkyTeam Alliance, as you may already know. Now it’s back to doing business as Saudia and they have actually very recently announced and re-introduced their first/old corporate identity that you have on your 1980s ticket, look up their new livery if you haven’t already seen it… it’s really pretty nice IMO.

[alainboy56]

@persiantraveller

A lengthy answer indeed.

Yes locals being employed has been around for decades, I remember Omanisation when I was there in mid 80s. Today ALL taxi drivers in Oman are locals.
In UAE as the population is 92/8%, tolerance and acceptance of expat workers in all fields is obviously never going to change, but there are now strict rules for all private companies. Whilst the principle is acceptable, it does beg WHY a foreign company MUST employ a local by law ………… I mean if they were hard workers and economically employable etc, then nobody should have a problem …… but therein lies the rub!

It is a little known miracle in the demographics of the Gulf, but all ‘Locals’ are born as Managers (as a minimum, many more are born as Department Directors) – Labourers are not born there at all, their ‘dna’ has been re-engineered. So these 18 year old ‘Managers’ and ‘Directors’ require a salary in keeping with that seniority level. Hours of work are also based upon those management levels and that should be absolutely not exceed 7 hours per day notwithstanding whatever workload/pressures that private company has on his productivity/contract completions. And, a weekly maximum of 5 days plus of course Friday – maybe you will catch him briefly but remotely, but not see him at all, as Friday … well Friday is, and always will be … Friday.
Now, should we throw into the mix this very month now? Where sleeping all day is not only allowed, its accepted as part and parcel of the sufferance.

I am of course being humorous and I had a conversation with some local ladies this morning at the local Mall Hypermarket – they accept, and enjoy my humour and agree their menfolk are ‘different’ – these ladies were all working, suffering, handling the check out tills, and NOT merely doing their ‘Dawam’.
‘Dawam’ in Arabic, means to attend somewhere not as ‘work’ (as we know it), but merely ‘to pass time’ and that is how the majority of local men see their employment….. I also add that I have many, many local male friends too and nobody has locked me up yet………………. Tomorrow night, Iftar in Oman.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Jacob, persiantraveller

[Author]

Posts