JEDDAH – nasair- the Saudi national carrier - registered its second consecutive month of net profit for the first time since its launch, said Sulaiman Abdullah Al-Hamdan, CEO of NAS Holding, the parent company of nasair. He said nasair achieved a SR55 million net profit in the past two months - SR14.4 million in June and nearly SR41 million in July. "First of all, I would like to thank Allah for his blessings to reach this success and I assure everyone that this historical occasion is a result of precise planning, day and night work from the management of nasair to face challenges and obstacles through effective and efficient management of resources and capabilities, squeezing operational cost to the minimum and putting contingency plans under the supervision of the board of directors of NAS holding," Al-Hamdan added. In In a statement, he lauded the management of nasair lead by Captain Francois Bouteiller, the CEO, and his team for valuable steps taken toward profitability, including the new fares that suites all targeted segments and at the same time continue development of technical side of the business by leading the market of online and mobile services through launching Internet & mobile booking, mobile boarding pass and a lot more online and smart services that helped in reducing operational cost. Although domestic flights proved non-profitable, nasair is socially responsible for the Saudi market, Al-Hamdan noted, so the management decided to increase the domestic presence in 2012. During the current month of Ramadan the flights to Jeddah were increased by nearly 100 percent from both Riyadh and Dammam and offered an additional 10,000 seats especially from Riyadh with 14 flights a day to Jeddah that made it easier for the Saudi citizens and residents to perform Umrah this year. Bouteiller stated that this is an historical day not for nasair, but for the whole Saudi aviation industry since it is the first time that a Saudi aviation company or group announces yearly or monthly net profit. In his statement, Captain Francois said "nasair management had a clear strategy and plans since the beginning of 2012 to achieve profitability through launching the new fares that suits all target customers. It offers a low cost tickets but with a special nasair style and services including quick response, on time flights and commitment to safety measurements. He further said nasair had a set of key performance indicators and they are watched very closely to reach profitability. Among these indicators is the aircraft utilization that reaches 12 hours in average a day which is an excellent record according to the world's benchmark. Since the beginning of 2012, nearly 1.8 million customers traveled on nasair on more than 13,000 flights giving an average annual load factor of nearly 75 percent and June/July load factor of nearly 80 percent. Bouteiller said nasair is planning to increase its presence in the Saudi domestic market in different regions in the near future but through new and different strategies that will be announced very soon. – SG
