Qatar Airways to Open Link to Taif in Saudi Arabia

Qatar Airways has announced it will begin flights to the Mecca province of Taif in Saudi Arabia, its sixth destination in the country. The four times weekly link from Doha will be launched from October 2, 2013 and will be operated with a dual-class Airbus A320 with 12 Business Class and 132 Economy seats.

The link continues the hub carrier’s growth in the Kingdom, a market where it plans to inaugurate domestic flights within the next year after being awarded a local licence by the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) in Saudi Arabia.

Qatar Airways made its debut in Saudi Arabia in 1997 when it introduced flights to Jeddah. It subsequently added direct links to Riyadh, Dammam, Madinah and Gassim and carried an estimated 137,000 bi-directional O&D passengers on its routes in and out of Saudi Arabia in 2012, according to MIDT data.

“For nearly 20 years we have been steadily growing our presence and services to Saudi Arabia,” said Akbar Al Baker, chief executive officer, Qatar Airways. “As our sixth destination, Taif will bring additional connectivity for passengers connecting from Asia, the Middle East and GCC countries.”

Taif is located in the Sarawat Mountains in the west of Saudi Arabia. The city is the centre of an agricultural area best known for its production of grapes, roses and honey but also previously housed the Saudi Government during the summer when the Royal Family moved from the heat of Riyadh. The city’s Regional Airport is currently linked to Cairo by NP and UJ; Dubai by flydubai; Istanbul by Turkish Airlines; Sharjah by Air Arabia, while Saudia offers domestic links to Abha, Dammam and Riyadh and nasair has domestic flights to Dammam and Riyadh and an international service to Kuwait.

Our analysis of MIDT data between Qatar and Saudi Arabia shows that as Qatar Airways has ramped up its activities in this market bi-directional O&D demand has more than trebled since 2009 ending what had been four consecutive years of demand declines. After a 33.5 per cent growth in 2010, numbers more than doubled in 2011 (up 113.7 per cent), while a more conservative 4.3 per cent growth was recorded last year.