Budget Airline Nas Air launches in Saudi Arabia
By Nick February 19, 2007
Nas Air, the first no-frills budget airline in Saudi Arabia flew for the first time February 17. This first flight, basically for media and publicity purposes, was led literally by the CEO, who is a trained pilot.
The ticket fares offered by Nas Air reportedly have the potential to be dirt cheap. I say potential, because it depends how early you book. The earlier, the better. Also, they are supposedly offering good discounts to those who purchase online at FlyNas.com.
Nas Air will officially open to all Arabians on February 25, 2007 with flights offered on one of its three Airbus A320s. Nas Air has big plans though, and expects to become a huge player in the budget airline market. They hope to have eight planes in their fleet in a year, and plan to service 23 Saudi Arabian destinations in two years. After that, they want to go international and will have an IPO. Yeah, like I said, big plans.
This happens to remind me a lot of Jet Blue and Emirates. Jet Blue, because of their urgency to grow and aggressiveness as a young airline. Emirates because Nas Air is exploiting (in a good way) an untapped middle-class Middle Eastern market.
If Nas Air doesn’t pull a downfall like their US rapper counterpart (sorry for the pop culture reference) they could become the next RyanAir or easyJet. Watch out Saudi Arabian Airlines.
Topics: Budget Airfare and Airlines, Middle East |
3 Responses to “Budget Airline Nas Air launches in Saudi Arabia”
Leave a Reply
« Learn a Foreign Language | Home | Movies that Inspire Travel »
Budget airline might be unsuccessful in Middle East world . Because people are too rich to use budget things!
I think there is still somewhat of a middle class deomographic somwehere in the Middle East or else budget Nas Airline wouldn't have took the plunge.
It'll be interesting to see if they see some success and more budget carriers follow their lead. Only time will tell.
I am currently living in Saudi Arabia and have taken advantage of two of the low cost operators: Air Arabia and Sama. Both offer good service and have fairly reliable departure times. Both are usually booked to capacity, with both nationals and expats. I believe it is incorrect to stereotype everyone living in the Middle East as wealthy as these are the elite few. The majority of the population, just as in most countries, is middle class, and those of us working here, particularly with the decline of the US dollar can not be considered wealthy. Competition is an excellent thing and should be encouraged.