Tourism & Hospitality | Friday 17 June, 2016 7:44 am |

THE General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) has announced that the Abha Regional Airport has been made a hub facility for the southern region. It said the airport would play a positive role in linking the southern area with the other 13 regions in the Kingdom.

Capt. Abdul Hakeem Al-Badr, assistant to GACA’s president for safety, security and air transport, said GACA has chosen Abha Regional Airport to become a hub airport serving the southern region of the Kingdom, in an effort to link the area population with the rest of the Kingdom regions and the world at large. This will contribute to strengthening economic activities and create new jobs for the youth of the region.

He said Flynas has been chosen to be the national carrier for the southern part of the country after thoroughly studying their capabilities, readiness and compatibilities and after meeting all of GACA requirements. The airliner serves the area with flights between Abha Airport and other airports in the region and from there to the rest of the Kingdom.

“Flynas will be the national carrier for the southern sector of the Kingdom. The decision was taken after thoroughly studying the potential, the capabilities and preparedness of the airline,” he told the Saudi Press Agency (SPA). Al-Badr said Flynas would operate flights between Abha and the other airports in the region then to the other areas in the Kingdom.

He said the Abha regional airport is the second axial airport in the Kingdom after Hail airport, which was chosen to serve the northern region, which is part of a national projects for hub airports implemented by GACA and under the directive of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman.

It’s worth noting the idea of (National Project for Hub Airports) is based on using a nearby hub airport as a gateway for each region to facilitate travel to the public between a number of Saudi cities and neighboring countries. This passenger traffic will be using hub airports, and not rely solely on the main international airports. This, in addition of working to develop the concept of air transport, will also allow the public a wider choice of travel.

Al-Badr said under the hub project, the airlines with declining flights would be supported to increase their flights and improve the services provided to the passengers.

“The passengers will be given the option to reach their favorite destinations through the axial airport whose number will be increased in the future,” he said.

The idea of “a national project for hub airports” is based on the use of a near axial airport as a gate to the entire region to enable the citizens and expatriates travel easily to the neighboring countries. Al-Badr said the idea was also meant to reduce dependence as much as possible on the international airports.

Al-Badr said that the project which has the support and follow up of the Minister of Transport and Chairman of GACA and aims to support certain routes that have low traffic, also to find suitable and practical solutions for providing air services for local travelers all over the Kingdom. The project will work to improve the quality of services at the airports, by providing passengers a chance to reach their favorite destinations through hub airports, which will provide more flights from and to major airports.

That flynas has been chosen as the carrier for the Southern Region is not doubted by its CEO Paul Byrne, who in a recent interview with a Mideast magazine, waxed confidence and said the Saudi low-cost carrier flynas, celebrating its ninth year of operations, plans to embark on a generation of growth and almost treble its fleet size in the process.

“What we’re doing is we’re trying to keep it nice and simple,” Byrne said. “I describe the airline as a Saudi low-cost. A lot of people might call us a budget airline. All of our aircraft have eight proper business class seats, so we’re not at the Ryanair level.”

Flynas carried 5.5 million passengers in 2015 and with plans to expand to new destinations this year, Byrne says he expects that figure to rise to more than 6 million this year. He says staff at the airline have suddenly found themselves in a whole new world.

“There’s a new confidence in the business. We finally found what works for us,” he said.