Emirates to boost Saudi Arabian services

Emirates has revealed that it will boost scheduled flights into Saudi Arabia, effective January 1^st, 2011. It will increase services into Jeddah operating a double daily service, 12 times weekly with A380 equipment and twice-weekly with A340-300. On the same date, Emirates will operate double daily services to Riyadh. Emirates is currently the second largest operator on the Dubai to Jeddah sector with a 42% share of the annual O+D traffic, second to Saudi Arabian Airlines with a 50% share. Over 328,000 O+D passengers flew the city pairs between July 2009 and July 2010. Emirates has just a 25% share of the Riyadh sector from Dubai with Saudi Arabian Airlines having a 71% share of the 385,000 O+D market.