Tourism & Hospitality | Saturday 19 November, 2016 6:00 am |

Saudi Arabian Airlines, the Kingdom’s flag carrier, started direct flights to the Turkish capital on Friday.

An Airbus A330-300 that took off from Jeddah landed at Ankara’s Esenboğa International Airport Friday afternoon and was accorded a warm reception. Capt. Sultan Dowaihi, acting chairman and CEO of Saudia, and several senior officials of the airline were on board.

Saudia will start operations between Madinah and Ankara on Sunday. There will be four weekly flights (Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday) from Jeddah and three flights from Madinah (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) to Ankara.

Ankara is the second destination of Saudia in Turkey after Istanbul.

On Sunday, Saudia will also fly for the first time to Algiers, the fourth international destination the national carrier to start operating in 2016. Earlier this year, Saudia started services to Male in Maldives and Munich, Germany.