Sama Airlines, the newest low-fare carrier in Saudi Arabia, announced on Monday that it is to launch its first service to India.
The Mumbai route will be the airline’s 11th international destination and the first first flight will leave Dammam on November 12, with three flights per week on Saturdays, Mondays, and Wednesdays. Fares start from 199 Saudi riyals ($53).
Andrew Cowen, Sama CEO, said: “The addition of Mumbai as Sama’s first destination in India is a part of our strategy to meet the huge demand for low fares travel between Saudi Arabia and India.
“The launch of Mumbai takes Sama’s international services to 80 percent of our total flying establishing a pathway for Sama towards a profitable future.”
He also announced that Sama had reached the milestone of flying a total 1.5 million passengers.
Statistics show that the number of travellers between Saudi Arabia and India in 2006 was more than 1.2 million and Sama is looking to take advantage of the growth in passengers on that route.
Samer Atawi, Sama’s chief commercial officer, said: “We are looking forward to supporting improved tourism and business relations between the two countries.
“There are many Saudi students in India and as many as 1.6 million Indians living and working in Saudi Arabia all looking for low fares travel between our two countries for work, visit, and Umrah purposes.”
Follow us on
