Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia), the national flag carrier of the Kingdom, announced the start of two new routes this June. Athens will start June 5 and Marrakesh on June 6. Both flights will be standalone routes; operated nonstop and direct from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the Kingdom of Morocco and the Hellenic Republic. The Jeddah-Marrakesh route will be operated with a state-of-the-art widebody Boeing 787 Dreamliner, with 24 seats in Business Class and 274 in Economy Class, operated three-times-weekly (Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays) effective June 6. Saudia currently flies regular scheduled services to Casablanca, and Marrakesh becomes the carrier's second destination in the country. The airline is pleased to be returning to Greece's capital after services discontinued in 2008. The destination will provide an additional link for holidaymakers and business traffic, starting first with a Riyadh to Athens nonstop service, which later in the year will become a Jeddah-Athens service. The Riyadh-Athens route will be operated with an Airbus A320 in a two-class configuration, four-times weekly (Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays). Last year the airline flew more than 34 million passengers, and introduced five new routes to its network: Vienna (Austria), Trivandrum (India), Surabaya (Indonesia), Medan (Indonesia) and re-introduced flights to Cochin, India, in addition to three seasonal routes to: Izmir, Malaga and Moscow. Saudia flies to 95 destinations worldwide, with a modern fleet of more than 160 narrow and widebody Airbus and Boeing aircraft. The average age of the Saudia fleet is less than five years. — SG
