JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s budget airline flyadeal aims to nurture and promote local female talent as it’s doubling its fleet by end of next year, its chief commercial officer told Arab News.
Ahmed Albrahim said the low-cost airline’s fleet contains 15 A320 narrowbodies, and it will continue to receive more aircraft of the A320 Neo class.
Albrahim expects the fleet to reach up to 30 aircraft by the end of 2022.
The airline seeks to be the fastest-growing company in the region next year, he said.
He said that 50 percent of the airlines’ cabin crew consists of Saudi women and the number will continue to rise.
“We are very proud that we are creating jobs for our young Saudi talents, this year we recruited close to 130 females,” he said.
The airline seeks to empower Saudi women in the aviation industry, he added, saying: “We have the first chief people officer, which is a female, also the first female airport duty manager, and first female pilot.”
The low-cost airline launched its first direct flights from Jeddah to Dubai last week. The new route signaled the company’s first international journey from the airport.
A subsidiary of Saudia, flyadeal now operates six routes to the UAE daily — with the other five originating from Riyadh.
The aviation industry was worst hit by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
In a report recently issued by the International Air Transport Association, total airline industry losses from 2020 to 2022 are expected to reach $201 billion despite a post-pandemic improvement.
Net losses are expected to come in at $11.6 billion in 2022 after a $51.8 billion loss in 2021, IATA said in its latest outlook for airline industry financial performance, showing improved results amid the continuing COVID-19 crisis.
Demand is expected to stand at 40 percent of 2019 levels for 2021, rising to 61 percent in 2022.
Albrahim admitted that the last two years had been bad for the industry. Likening it to the 2008 global financial crisis, he said during that time “people lost their spending power.”
“Back in 2008 when the world witnessed the financial crisis, people lost their spending power,” he said, It was a very tough time for everybody including airlines.
However, he added, the COVID-19 has changed people’s behaviors due to social distancing measures and airlines have to work out different strategies to ensure a smooth recovery. Albrahim said people now want all operations carried out electronically or “touchless.”
Albrahim said this is putting pressure on all airlines. However, the airline official expressed optimism that the industry will recover and the flyadeal will grow from a “lean startup” into a key aviation player.
“We were able to recover a lot because we are domestic airlines, and because we are one of the very few airlines in the region that follows the low-cost carrier,” Albrahim said.