Saudi Airlines was founded on September 1945 and it is flag carrier of the country based in Jeddah. The main operational base of the airline company is at King Abdulaziz International Airport. The secondary hubs of the airport are King Fahd International Airport in Dammam and King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh.

The airline also operates domestic and international scheduled flights to over 100 destinations in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe and North America. Saudi Airlines joined the SkyTeam airline alliance on May 29 2012. It became the first ever Arab Gulf carrier to join one of the 3 major airline alliances.

History

In 1945, US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented the Douglas DC-3 as a gift to King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saudi. Al-Kandara airport, near Jeddah, practically served as the airline company’s main base. The airline used five DC-3 aircraft for launching scheduled operations on Jeddah-Riyadh-Hofuf-Dhahran route in March 1947. The very first international service of the airline company was between Jeddah and Cairo. Then, later on in the year, in 1948, it commenced its services to Beirut, Karachi and Damascus.

The airline company took the delivery of two Boeing 720s in the year 1962. It became the fourth Middle Eastern Airline to fly jet aircraft after Cyprus Airways and Middle East Airlines. The airline company also became a registered company on February 19 1963.

Development (2000s-2020s)

Prince Sultan, bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, signed a legal contract to conduct studies for the privatization of Saudi Airlines on October 8 2000. The Saudi Government also indicated that the airline may lose its domestic services monopoly in 2005. Saudi also began dividing itself into SBU, known as strategic Business units. The country’s Council of Ministers also approved the conversion of the strategic units into companies in August 2007.

The airline company got reverted to its English brand name Saudia from Saudi Arabian Airlines. Saudia received sixty four new jets by the end of 2012. It then received another 8 Boeing 787-9 aircraft which joined the fleet in the year 2015. Rise of Saudia (2020s-Present)

The airline company in April 2012 announced that on April 19, it would try the mobile app developed by International Air Transport Association, which helps its passengers to manage their travel information as well as their documents in a digital way.

The airline company was in talks with two major aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing, in December 2021.

The airline company began its services to Seoul, Beijing, Mykonos, Batumi, Barcelona, Malaga, Chicago, Bangkok, Entebbe, Kyiv and Moscow in April 2022. However, owing to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the services to Kyiv are delayed. Saudia signed a legal contract with the Air Connectivity Programme in July 2022 to launch four new destinations to Tunis, Zurich, Kuala Lumpur and Barcelona.

Sponsorships

The main sponsor of Williams Formula One team was Saudia from 1977 to 1984. It was during this period that Williams won the Constructors Championship twice.

The main sponsor of the 2018 and 2019 DiriyahePrix was Saudia. Newcastle United announced in November 2022 that Saudia will be the official tour airline Partner.