Following a three year-long process, SaudiGulf Airlines (SGQ, Dammam) has been awarded an Air Operators Certificate (AOC) by the Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA).
The GACA said on Thursday last week that the start-up will be conferred its documentation at a ceremony to be held on June 22.
Owned by the Dammam-based Abdel Hadi Abdullah Al-Qahtani & Sons Group of Companies (Tariq A.H. Al-Qahtani & Bros.), Saudi Gulf Airlines will operate multiple daily flights between Dammam, Jeddah International and Riyadh initially before expanding ts network to include Abha, Madinah, Gassim and Tabuk. International flights have also been touted though this is contingent on GACA's consent.
Fleet-wise, Saudi Gulf has four A320-200 (sl)s on order from Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac), three of which have already been delivered. It also has twenty-four A220-300s on order from Bombardier Aerospace (BBA, Montréal Trudeau) the first of which is due for delivery later next year.
Gulf Air (GF, Bahrain International) has acted in an advisory role to the project.
No official word on the status of rival start-up, Al Maha Airways (Riyadh), has yet been heard though in April, Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) chief executive officer, Akbar al Baker, did reaffirm his carrier's interest in entering the Saudi market.
