State-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) ranked as the fastest growing airline in the Middle East, the company said in a statement on Saturday.
The Kingdom’s national flag carrier has grown by 13.1% and was rated with an ‘A’ brand rating by Brand Finance, a brand valuation consultancy that recently published its annual report which ranks the top 50 airlines worldwide.
Besides calculating brand value, Brand Finance “also determines the relative strength of brands through a balanced scorecard of metrics evaluating marketing investment, stakeholder equity and business performance.”
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The recent achievement reflects Saudia’ success in brand performance, the company said, attributing this “to the overall growth in its route network; expansion to new markets; growth in passenger numbers, and enhancements in the onboard product, lounges and guest services.”
“The airline’s brand is symbolic of the brand of the nation. With the tourism ecosystem flourishing and the number of visitors at an exceptional all-time high level, Saudia is well-positioned to continue accelerating as the wings of the country’s Vision 2030,” Chief Marketing Officer Khaled Tash said.
The Kingdom intends to increase the number of tourists to 100 million and the number of religious visitors to 30 million a year by 2030, as part of Vision 2030.
Saudia added that its fleet consists of nearly 150 “narrow and widebody Airbus and Boeing aircraft, operating to more than 100 destinations."
Last month, Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Duailej, head of the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), told Al Arabiya that GACA plans to boost airports’ capacity to handle 330 million passengers by 2030.
GACA also aims to increase the number of destinations offered from the Kingdom’s airports from 100 to 250 by 2030.
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