Saudi Arabia’s Flyadeal is expanding its international network with two new routes to Pakistan, marking the LCC’s first regular scheduled services to South Asia.
Starting Feb. 2, the Saudia subsidiary will operate flights to Karachi with two roundtrips per week from Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport and Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport. Both routes will be served with Airbus A320 aircraft.
“Building on the strong cultural and historical links between the Kingdom and Pakistan, and acknowledging the demand for air travel given the commercial, pilgrim and family ties of both countries, it was just a matter of time before flyadeal opened its newest air corridor,” Flyadeal CEO Steven Greenway says.
Flyadeal began operating Hajj charter flights to Pakistan in 2024, but the Karachi routes will mark the airline’s first scheduled services to the country. Greenway also hinted at future expansion, noting that more Pakistani cities are “in the pipeline.”
“After developing a solid domestic operation across Saudi Arabia over the years, international growth is now our focus during 2025 for what will be an exciting year of expansion as more aircraft join the fleet,” he says.
According to data provided by OAG Schedules Analyser, Flynas and Saudia each serve the two new routes being launched by Flyadeal, while airblue, AirSial, Pakistan International Airlines and Serene Air each operate between Karachi and Jeddah.
Flyadeal launched its first international flights in July 2021, connecting Riyadh and Dubai. The carrier currently operates 12 international routes, including new services launched in late 2024, such as from Jeddah to Sohag, Egypt, and Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Additionally, flights from Jeddah and Riyadh to Amman, Jordan’s capital, commenced on Jan. 1, 2025.
About 18% of the LCC’s seat capacity is now deployed on international routes, up from 15.8% this time last year. However, speaking at Routes World 2024 in October 2024, Greenway said the airline expects to increase this to around 35% by the end of 2025 in line with the expansion of its fleet.
Flyadeal operates 36 A320s (11 A320ceo and 25 A320neo), with a further five more A320neos to come from its current orderbook. In 2024, it signed for 51 more A320neo-family aircraft (12 A320neos and 39 A321neos) and has been evaluating a widebody order for about 15 A330neos or Boeing 787s.
As reported by Aviation Week in November, Flyadeal is targeting growth in Europe, South Asia, and North Africa, but CEO Steven Greenway also emphasized opportunities closer to home. “Around the Middle East, there’s still a lot of stuff to do,” he said. “We don’t fly to Kuwait; we don’t fly to Bahrain. There’s a lot in our backyard that we can do. Saudi Arabia in my book is still a very immature market. It’s not a mature market like Western Europe or North America.”
He noted emerging traffic streams, including increased travel by Saudi women following the relaxation of rules requiring male guardianship during travel. Greenway also highlighted growth in the inbound market, driven by a steady rise in religious traffic and signs of tourism development under Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 strategy.
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