Thiruvananthapuram: Saudia, the national carrier of Saudi Arabia, will commence services in Thiruvananthapuram - Riyadh and Thiruvana-nthapuram - Jeddah sectors from October.
As per the initial schedules, there will be three services to Riyadh and two to Jeddah every week. All the services will be in the afternoon, Thiruvananthapuram airport director George Tharakan said.
While the Riyadh - Thiruvananthapuram - Riyadh services will be on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The Thiruvan-anthapuram - Jeddah services will be on Thursdays and Saturda-ys. All the services will reach here at 12 noon and depart at 1.30 p.m. Saudia will be operating aircraft in Airbus A330-300 range with a seating capacity of nearly 300. Apart from the large NRK population, the Jeddah services could tap the Hajj pilgrims also.
Usually most of the flights in Thiruvanant-hapuram - Gulf sector operate during the night and early morning hours. About 15 flights, most of them in Gulf sector, are operating during this five hour gap from 2 am to 7 a.m. The Thiruvanantha-puram airport is facing a congestion during peak hours and hence it would be difficult to accommodate more flights during the night hours without expanding the airport, said airport sources.
Earlier there were rumours that Saudia may drop their plans to operate to Thiruvanantha-puram and may consider the Kannur International airport which is nearing completion.
But lack of a clear picture on the commissioning of the Kannur airport may have prompted the airline to commence operation from Thiruvanantha-puram, sources said.
