Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) said on November 9 that it would license new airlines this month, Arab News has reported, citing a report from Asharq Al-Awsat Arabic daily.
Six of the seven airline companies are in the final stage of the licensing process to operate both domestic and international flights by the end of 2013.
“We are currently studying proposals and analyzing their operational, technical and financial capability,” Khaled Al Khaibary, GACA spokesman, reportedly said. “We will announce the names of the successful airline companies this month. They will be asked to fulfill economic and safety requirements before March 2013.”
Saudi Arabia’s travel market accounts for 13% of the Middle East’s aviation sector and is the largest in the region. More than 53 million passengeres travelled through the Kingdom in 2011 on a recorded 950,000 flights.
Experts have said that adding new airlines will boost competition and improve customer service. However, fuel prices have presented a significant problem for international airlines, with fuel spending constituting 42% of airlines’ operational costs in the Kingdom compared to the international rate of 29%.