JEDDAH - The General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) has made it imperative for new airline companies licensed to operate domestic flights from the Kingdom's regional airports to set economy class fares in line with Saudi Arabian Airlines' prices. GACA gave the new operators the go-ahead to set their own fares for business and first class as well as international flights. GACA has drafted a set of rules and regulations governing the activities of the new companies, Faisal Al-Suqair, the authority's deputy chairman, was quoted as saying in the local media. The authority has identified the areas that have a large market for passengers and are not fully covered by Saudia. He said the door is open for new operators to select the airport where they will be based according to the operational plan. He said GACA's board of directors will study the companies' offers and analyze them before announcing the winners of the licenses in October. He said the authority had already received offers from seven qualified companies and consortia. Experts in commercial aviation have unanimously argued that fuel prices at Saudi airports pose a great challenge for international air companies. They stressed the need for reducing the fuel prices to the level enjoyed by Saudia to level the playing field and break the national carrier's monopoly on the domestic routes. They said the money they pay for the fuel represents 42 percent of their operational costs, against an international average of 29 percent. They said this made it difficult for any air company to pay such high prices for fuel in the Kingdom. Dr. Nasser Al-Tayyar, an expert in commercial aviation and owner of several airlines, said investors who deal with airports in the Kingdom avoid refueling at these airports because this puts a huge burden on operational costs. He added: “We deal with five airports in the Kingdom but we supply our planes with fuel before they fly to the Kingdom to avoid these high prices.” — SG
