Saudi Arabia-based Low Cost Carrier (LCC), Sama Airlines commenced thrice weekly operations on the Mumbai – Dammam route from day before yesterday The airline is offering 'All-Economy' services on this route by deploying B 737 – 300 aircraft with seating capacity of 147 people. After entering the Indian market, the airline is eyeing few more contact points to operate direct flights between India and Saudi Arabia. Speaking with TravelBiz Monitor about the future plans of the carrier, Andrew Cowen, Chief Executive Officer, Sama Airlines said, “Being the financial capital of India, Mumbai was our first target city to start direct operations. The potential on the Mumbai – Dammam route is huge and thus we are going to start double daily flights on this route from January next year. After receiving about 98 per cent load factor on the inaugural flight, we expect to record on an average 70 per cent load factor in the first year of operations. I am sure the load factor is only going to increase in the long term.”
Providing an insight into the strategy to be used for the Indian market, Cowen said, “We are first looking at having good connections between Mumbai and Dammam. |