JEDDAH — Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) Director General Saleh Bin Nasser Al-Jasser on Tuesday opened the new renovated office of the national carrier in Cairo, which has been reconstructed according to the new identity of the airlines. The ceremony was attended by Cairo commissioner Jalal Mustapha Al-Saeed, diplomats from the Saudi Embassy and senior Saudia officials. Speaking on the occasion, Jasser recalled that Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman has directed Saudia to continue its flights from Riyadh and Jeddah to Sharm El-Sheikh in support of Egypt's tourism industry and said the airlines will increase its flights to Egypt during the coming few months. He said Saudia started its flights to Egypt in 1947 and has since then become the largest single international air operator in the country. "We operate daily flights to Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor and other destinations in Egypt from Riyadh, Jeddah, Madinah, Dammam, Abha and Tabuk," he said. Jasser said since the beginning of this year until October, Saudia had carried 1.662 million passengers to and from Egypt with an increase of 190,000 passengers over the same period last year. He said the passengers were transported onboard 9,475 flights with an increase of 888 flights over the same period last year. The director general said 35,800 passengers were transported from the Kingdom to Sharm El-Sheikh in 2014 with a rise of 80 percent over the traffic movement in 2010 via 657 flights with an increase of 217 flights (50 percent) over the number of flights in 2010. He added since January and until October this year, about 60,000 passengers were flown to Sharm El-Shaikh with an increase of 28,000 passengers onboard 738 Saudia flights with a rise of 44 percent against the same period the previous year. "We will increase the flights in the two directions between Saudi Arabia and Egypt next year," he said. Jasser further said Saudia will boost its present fleet of 120 aircraft to 200 by 2020. "We have recently acquired 50 new Airbuses which we will receive in less than three years with 28 of them arriving in 2016," he said. Jasser said Saudia's office in Cairo is the first of its kind worldwide for the national carrier, which will issue the boarding pass and accept electronic payment.
