flynas Revenues Soar 46%, Passenger Number Up 26% in H1 2023

flynas, the Saudi air carrier and the leading low-cost airline in the world and the Middle East, reported a revenues surge of 46% for the first half of 2023 compared to the same period of the last year, as passenger numbers increased 26% to about 5 million passengers and seat capacity grew 19%, boosted by upscaling fleet by 19% to 51 aircraft, according to the semi-annual performance report.

Bander Almohanna, CEO and Managing Director of flynas, said: “We are proud of flynas performance during the first half of 2023. This industry-leading operational performance will keep us on track to achieve our full-year targets as we continuously expand our network, create new partnerships, and enhance our operational capacities”.

Almohanna noted that the growth figures and the outstanding performance by flynas come as a result of the growth and expansion plan launched by the company since the beginning of the year. He added, “We launched 10 new destinations and routes during this summer and became the first Saudi air carrier to launch direct flights from Riyadh and Jeddah to Sphinx International Airport in Cairo, and in partnership with the Air Connectivity Program, we started operating direct flights from King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah to Bishkek and Osh in Kyrgyzstan and Almaty in Kazakhstan, and increasing frequency of weekly flights to Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan”.

“During the Hajj season this year, flynas transported more than 100,000 pilgrims from 13 countries and boosting our operational capacity, we took delivery in early May of our fourth wide-body Airbus A330 aircraft, and welcomed two Airbus aircraft of the next-generation A320neo, representing the third batch of 19 new aircraft of that model to be delivered in 2023, just a few days after we signed an agreement with Airbus, during Paris Air Show, to purchase another 30 new A320neo aircraft, as part of our plans to upscale our fleet”, Almohanna continued.

Concerning the services provided to the travellers, Almohanna said, “From January, flynas provided passengers on board its flights with the privilege of applying through its website for a 4-day transit visa to enter the Kingdom once their tickets are issued following the terms and requirements of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ system, in conjunction with the launch of our leisure and holidays platform nasholidays.com in a new look, enabling our guests to personalize their traveling package and design ideal holidays through a single window and a seamless experience.”

“Thanks to our dedicated staff, we have advanced to a globally prominent position among the top four low-cost airlines in the world, according to the Skytrax organization, which is the most important reference for performance assessment in the aviation industry. We will continue working to keep our leading position and reinforce it for the long run in order to maintain our strong growth, consolidating our ability to participate in achieving objectives of the National Civil Aviation Strategy to reach 330 million passengers and 100 million tourists, and increase the number of international destinations linked to the Kingdom to more than 250 destinations by 2030,” He added.

flynas connects more than 70 domestic and international destinations, with more than 1,500 weekly flights, and has flown more than 60 million passengers since its launch in 2007. The growth plan aims to reach 165 domestic and international destinations by 2030, in line with the goals of Saudi Vision 2030.

The success of flynas was recognized with many international awards, including Skytrax International Award as the Best Low-cost Airline in the Middle East in 2023 for the sixth time in a row and the 4th Best LCC worldwide. It is the highest worldwide award in the aviation sector since its launch in 1999.

Meanwhile, flynas won the Best Low-cost Airline Award in the Middle East from the World Travel Awards in 2022 for the eighth year in a row.

In an assessment by the non-profit organization APEX, one of the most significant international airline associations, which included 600 airlines of various categories worldwide, flynas came in the four-star category, the highest category for low-cost airlines worldwide.