Saudia (SV, Jeddah International) has wet-leased two high-density B777-300(ER) from Air Atlanta Europe (CT, Malta International) to use on its Indonesian routes, ch-aviation research has revealed.
9H-AZE (msn 32708) began operating for the Saudi flag carrier on May 29, 2023. Having been used exclusively for Hajj charters from Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta until late June, it is now deployed on domestic charters from Jeddah. Meanwhile, 9H-AZD (msn 32707) was ferried from maintenance at Addis Ababa International to Jeddah on June 23, 2023, but has yet to enter commercial service.
The ch-aviation schedules module shows the B777s will be used to operate the daily Jeddah-Jakarta route starting August 2, 2023.
Both 2005 model aircraft are leased from AerCap and feature a high-density configuration seating up to 492 passengers, with just 14 in business class. They were previously in service with Russia's Royal Flight (ABG, Moscow Sheremetyevo) but were added by Air Atlanta Europe as the first two non-B747s in its fleet just before the Saudia contract. The ch-aviation fleets module shows that Saudia also operates 35 in-house B777-300(ER)s, albeit in a much less dense layout, seating, in various configurations, up to 290, 381, 405 or 413 passengers in dual- or triple-classes.
Air Atlanta Europe also operates three B747-400s, two B747-400(BDSF)s, and one B747-400FSCD on behalf of Saudia. The Saudi carrier is currently the only ACMI customer of the Maltese offshoot of Air Atlanta Icelandic (CC, Reykjavik Keflavik), wet-leasing its entire 9H-registered fleet. The Icelandic AOC operates a further thirteen B747-400s in passenger and cargo variants.
