Saudi Airlines Eyes 20 Pct Passenger Growth For KL-Jeddah Route

SEPANG (Selangor, Malaysia) May 17 (Bernama) -- Saudi Airlines is aiming for a 20 per cent growth in passengers for its Kuala Lumpur (KL)-Jeddah route this year from 200,000 passengers recorded last year. Its Manager, Malaysia-Singapore-Thailand-Vietnam, Fawaz Alharbi said the target would be contributed by the introduction of its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, a new aircraft with the most modern technical and technological equipment replacing its current Boeing 777-300 aircraft. "We have an average of 80 per cent passengers load currently and the new aircraft would service the Jeddah-KL route twice daily," he said at the special welcoming ceremony for the new aircraft here Tuesday. The Boeing 798-9 Dreamliner is a 298-seat passenger aircraft with 24 seats in Business Class and 274 seats in Economy Class. Fawaz said Saudi Airlines saw high demand from travellers due to its good services and would only utilise new aircraft which were not older than three years. He said the airline planned to increase its frequency from 14 flights per week to 18 flights per week after month of Ramahan this year. "Saudi Airlines started its operation in Malaysia since 1987 and this country becomes our important route especially for Muslim pilgrims," he said. He said Saudi Airlines currently has 136 aircraft in its fleet and the company planned to increase this to 200 aircraft by 2020. -- BERNAMA