British Airways (BA) is to further increase capacity between the UK and Saudi Arabia this winter by offering a daily schedule on its London Heathrow – Riyadh route from October 30. The airline currently serves the route five times every week but confirmed earlier this year that it would introduce a sixth weekly rotation for the Northern Winter, matching its capacity for the 2010/2011 season. However, it has now revealed that in fact will offer a daily schedule to support increased demand.

“We are absolutely delighted with the demand from the Saudi Arabian market since we resumed flights two years ago. Our two Kingdoms’ share a great affinity and passengers are travelling for a wide variety of reasons from tourism to business to education,” explained Paolo De Renzis, Regional Commercial Manager Middle East, British Airways. “In response to this continuously growing demand, we quickly realised that the additional one flight a week from Riyadh, announced just over a month ago, wasn’t going to be sufficient. So, instead of adding one flight, we’ve decided to increase it to two, resulting in a daily service throughout the week from Riyadh beginning in end-October this year.”

British Airways currently competes with Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) and bmi British Midland International on the London Heathrow – Riyadh route, while Saudia also offers flights from Jeddah, a destination BA serves five times per week. An estimated 527,000 O&D passengers travelled between the UK and Saudi Arabia in the past year, the largest flow of traffic between Europe and the Kingdom, accounting for 30.7 per cent of the total traffic.

Looking in more detail at the London Heathrow – Riyadh route, an estimated 161,000 O&D passengers travelled on the route in the past year. This is a 7.7 per cent increase on the previous 12 months and clearly shows the growing trade between the two countries. BA carried an estimated 37,000 O&D passengers (23 per cent of the total) in the last year, with Saudia holding a 38 per cent share and bmi british Midland International 25 per cent.

Schedule:

BA263 LHR2100 – 0610+1RUH 777 D
BA262 RUH0800 – 1210LHR 777 x25
BA262 RUH0815 – 1225LHR 777 25