PARIS: Saudia to be first with high density A330

Passenger demand in Saudi Arabia is experiencing high growth both on domestic and regional routes. The new A330-300 Regional variant, specially designed for regional and domestic operations, is Airbus’ solution for markets with large populations and fast growing, concentrated air traffic flows.

The A330-300 Regional is set to boost capacity on several of Saudi Arabian Airlines most in-demand routes, enabling the airline to better serve the Saudi Arabian and regional travelling public.

Saleh bin Nasser Al-Jasser, Saudia’s director general said: “The A330-300 Regional’s unique flexibility, high capacity and operational capabilities will enable us to expand our domestic and regional network and better absorb growing passenger traffic.

The shopping spree will not end there. Al-Jasser told Arabian Aerospace that the airline is “keen to modernise” its fleet and indicates that, within five years, it will acquire “more than 100” aircraft of various types.
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The A330-300 Regional is optimized to seat up to 400 passengers utilizing the Airbus 18-inch wide economy seat comfort on missions up to 3,000 nm and offers significant cost savings through a reduced operational weight of around 200 tonnes. The reduction in fuel burn per seat and maintenance costs will result in an overall cost reduction by up to 26% compared with the today’s long-range A330-300. Airbus said the A330 Regional benefits from the latest A350 XWB and A380 technologies.

Saudia has also chosen to grow its A320 fleet with an order for a further20 of its narrowbodies.The airline is due to face mounting competition in the Kingdom with the plan for two domestic carriers - Saudi Gulf and Al Maha - to begin services as soon as a government-promised AOC is granted by GACA.  Today's announcement sees the national flag carrier positioning itself to be able to compete on price and modernity when the aircraft are delivered.

Saudia's existing Airbus fleet consists of twelve A330-300s and 50 A320 family aircraft and is also due  to begin taking delivery of its first Boeing 787s and will also introduce another batch of 777-300ERs for its medium and long haul fleet.