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Sama Airlines to start Indian operations by Nov 2008

Saudi Arabia-based Low Cost Carrier (LCC)- Sama Airlines will start operations in India by November this year. The airline will initially start services to Mumbai and Delhi with four flights a week from both cities to Saudi Arabia. This development is a result of the aviation agreement signed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and India earlier this year, to increase the air frequency between both countries. The airline will deploy B 737-300 aircraft (all economy class) and is looking at wide-body operations in future for the Indian market. Sama airlines has appointed New Delhi-based Nijhawan Travels in the North and Mumbai- based Akbar Travels for the South as General Sales Agents (GSA).

Speaking exclusively with TravelBiz Monitor about the latest developments, Kevin Steele, Director of Sales, Sama Airlines said, “We got the permission to begin operations from the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and are awaiting approvals from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). We have got ten points of operations in India but we will start services initially in Mumbai and New Delhi. To begin with, we are looking at four flights per week from both the Indian cities to Saudi Arabia.” The airline received the approval to operate out of ten cities in India of which Kochi, Calicut, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Lucknow and Kolkata apart from Mumbai and New Delhi were confirmed by Steele. The airline is looking at 60 per cent seat occupancy on an average in the first year of operation.

Currently, Sama Airlines is present on Galileo but will join other Global Distribution System (GDS) by November this year. “We are in talks with Amadeus, Sabre, Worldspan and Abacus and aim to work with them by end of this year. The GDS model is one of the best distribution channel in India and worldwide,” said Steele. Nijhawan Travels, which has been appointed as GSA in order to enhance the sales of the airline is looking at expanding to cities with higher traffic to Saudi Arabian countries. “We are looking at offices in Jaipur, Lucknow, Delhi, Srinagar, Jammu and Kolkata to boost the sales of airlines. We will also distribute the inventory on a B2B level,” said Bansi Lal Nijhawan, Founder, Nijhawan Group. About 35 per cent of the bookings for Sama Airlines in Saudi Arabia come through direct online sales. Already working on the Service Fee Model in international markets, Sama Airlines will follow the same model in India.

In January this year the governments of India and Saudi Arabia allowed more than one airline from each side to operate between the two nations. This was made possible only after the expiry of the three year moratorium imposed by the Union Cabinet in 2004 on allowing only Air India and its subsidiaries to fly to Saudi Arabia. Till January this year, only Air India and Saudi Arabian Airlines served on the routes between the countries, but the new agreement has opened doors for new airlines to enter the market. Through the agreement, the seat capacity between the nations went up from the current 6,500 to 20,000 per week. Saudi Arabian Airlines announced the extension of its operations to Calicut, Lucknow and Bangalore in January after the agreement was signed. Even Indian flag carrier Air India will introduce new services to Madinah International Airport and extend its services to Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah.

According to sources, Saudi Arabian Airlines will also fly to cities such as Ahmedabad, Trivandrum and Kolkata in the second phase of the agreement, while two private Indian carriers will be allowed to fly to Riyadh and Dammam. Recently, the government permitted Jet Airways to start daily flights from Mumbai (to Riyadh) and Delhi (to Jeddah) to Saudi Arabia. “The airline has been permitted to start services immediately. It is now for the airline to decide when to begin operation,” concluded the official source.

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