Saudi Arabian Airlines (SAA) announced Saturday it has increased its international flights to Saudi Arabia to meet the demands of Umrah performers and Saudi tourists who return home to spend the holy month with their families. Khaled Al-Molhem, Saudia's director general, pointed out that the airline transported more than 375,000 passengers on domestic and international flights during the first week of August. “We operated 159 scheduled and additional flights from Cairo last week,” said Al-Molhem, who added that seat capacities have been increased. “Those flights carried about 39,000 passengers. Moreover, 94 flights from Dubai transported almost 8,100 travelers to the Kingdom and almost 3,700 passengers arrived on 32 flights from Beirut,” he said. Al-Molhem said Saudia operated 21 flights from London that brought more than 3,500 people to the Kingdom. “In addition, Saudia transported almost 2,800 from Paris on 27 flights,” he said. “We also transported about 2,600 passengers from Geneva onboard 10 flights.” In August, Saudia will operate more than 12,400 flights; almost 4,100 of them are scheduled to serve King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah and Prince Mohammed Bin Abdul Aziz International Airport in Madina, primarily in service to passengers wanting to perform Umrah, Al-Molhem said. During the summer season, the airline operates 295 domestic flights and 145 international flights that carry about 7 million passengers, more than one-third of the 19 million passengers it serves annually.
