Air Arabia-Led Saudi Budget Carrier Starts Flying From Dammam

Saudi Arabia’s newest national low-cost airline is now in the air. The consortium formed by Air Arabia Group, Nesma Group and KUN Holding operated its inaugural flight from King Fahd International Airport in Dammam to Riyadh on 20 September, according to a statement issued by Air Arabia the following day.

The launch came less than a week after the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) handed the group its Air Operator Certificate (AOC) on 14 September. The certificate was presented in the presence of Transport and Logistic Services Minister Saleh Al-Jasser, who also chairs GACA, and GACA President Abdulaziz Al-Duailej.

Three domestic routes to start

The carrier is opening with a deliberately compact network. Dammam-Riyadh and Dammam-Jeddah are each served twice a day, while Dammam-Medinah runs once daily. Flights are operated with Airbus A320s in a single-class layout of 174 seats, the same aircraft type and configuration that underpin Air Arabia’s low-cost model in Sharjah and its other hubs.

Bookings are being taken through Air Arabia’s own website, call centre and travel agents, and the airline is carrying across the group’s existing onboard products, including its SkyTime streaming service and the AirRewards loyalty programme.

Adel Al Ali, Group Chief Executive of Air Arabia, described the first departure as a milestone for the new national budget carrier and said the network would be widened step by step from the three opening routes. Dammam Airports chief executive Mohammed Al-Hassany said the decision to base the airline at King Fahd International strengthened the airport’s role as the Eastern Province’s gateway.

A big plan for an under-served region

The opening schedule is a small first step against the targets GACA has set out. The regulator says the airline is expected to serve 24 domestic and 57 international destinations and to carry about 10 million passengers a year by 2030, creating more than 2,400 direct jobs. GACA’s aviation safety chief, Captain Sulaiman Almuhaimedi, said the carrier should sharpen competition in the domestic market and support trade and tourism in the east of the Kingdom.

The consortium, which has majority Saudi ownership, was named winner of GACA’s tender for the new carrier in July 2025.

Dammam is a logical base. King Fahd International handled 13.7 million passengers in 2025, according to the General Authority for Statistics, making it Saudi Arabia’s third-busiest airport but well behind Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International (53.5 million) and Riyadh’s King Khalid International (40.8 million). Saudi airports as a whole carried 140.9 million passengers last year, up 9.6 per cent.

The new airline enters a domestic market where low-cost competition is already established through flynas and Saudia Group’s flyadeal, both of which are run from the Kingdom’s western and central regions rather than from the east. For Air Arabia, the Dammam venture marks a move from flying into Saudi Arabia to operating a carrier based inside it.

The international side of the plan has not yet been scheduled. Air Arabia has said only that more domestic and international destinations will follow from Dammam.