Riyadh: Saudi Arabia’s first and only budget airline, flynas, has suspended long-haul flights because profits on the routes did not meet expectations, chief executive Raja Azmi said on Tuesday. “We had some issues from a financial standpoint in terms of the profitability of some of the routes...,” Azmi said by telephone. “We have taken a stand that we are suspending — not stopping — those routes for the moment and will relook at the whole situation again.” He added that he could not yet say when long-haul flights might resume.
A statement posted on the airline’s website said: “flynas has suspended all long-haul flight services on its Global Flight Routes Programme, including all flights to London Gatwick.” In April this year, flynas said its growth strategy would focus on developing long-haul flights to five or six new destinations including London, Manchester, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, using the Red Sea city of Jeddah as a hub.
The airline, 37 per cent owned by Saudi investment firm Kingdom Holding and the rest by National Airline Services Holding, said it expected to grow at least 20 per cent annually and turn profitable in 2014 after seven years of losses since it was founded.
