Saudia’s future business model to help cut domestic flights prices: Exec

A Saudia aircraft

Saudi Arabian Airlines’ (Saudia) future business model will help reduce ticket prices for domestic flight, Chief Marketing Officer Khaled Tash said.

This is because charter aviation will deliver passengers on their domestic flights instead of Saudia’s planes, Tash told Rotana Khalejia.

Addressing complaints about the high domestic flight ticket prices, the executive stated that the aviation sector depends on cost as its single-digit profit margins are “very small”. He also indicated that many companies do not earn direct profit, but rather aim more for indirect profit through their role in economic connectivity and development.

He further noted that the global inflation and the challenges that the sector has gone through and is still enduring are reasons for the rise in prices globally and locally.

Tash also pointed out that fuel costs take up 30-40% of the ticket price, indicating that fuel prices for Saudia edged 70% higher last year.

Therefore, among the solutions there is the culture of early booking, he said, adding that the Saudi flagship carrier doubled the number of promotional offers to reduce ticket prices by three times this year compared to last year.

In addition, Saudia provided in August and September international and local offers on the Saudi National Day and sold one million tickets during the two months at reduced prices.