Tourism & Hospitality | Wednesday 29 April, 2015 3:18 pm |

flynas, the Saudi Arabian national carrier launched daily flights from Riyadh to Egypt effective April 29, 2015 with the inaugural flight on the new route taking off from Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport at 01:25 pm to arrive at Cairo International Airport Terminal 1 at 03:15 pm.

Ayed Al Jeaid, Chairman of NAS Holding Group, Bandar Al Mohanna, CEO of NAS Holding, and Paul Byrne, CEO of flynas, were onboard the maiden flight which firmly reinforces flynas’ position as the largest regional player connecting KSA with Egypt. flynas currently offers a robust operation serving 6 destinations within Egypt – namely Cairo, Alexandria, Sohag, Luxor, Sharm El Sheikh and Aswan.

In celebration of the inaugural flight, a special ceremony was organized at King Khalid International Airport which was attended by Yousef Al Abdan – Director General of King Khaled International Airport, who congratulated the entire flynas team on their successful efforts in opening an additional destination connecting Saudi Arabia to Egypt, following the launch of the daily non-stop service between Jeddah and Cairo in June 2014.

“On behalf of the entire flynas team, I would like to extend our appreciation to all the governmental entities that have contributed to the success of our strategic expansion plans, including the General Authority of Civil Aviation in Saudi Arabia, the Civil Aviation Authority and Ministry of Tourism in Egypt in addition to Cairo International Airport,” said Bandar Al Mohanna, CEO of NAS Holding.

He added: “The new route between Riyadh and Cairo is a true affirmation of flynas’ vision to strengthen its network in Egypt and the wider region. Given the huge demand, the daily flights will add capacity to a busy sector servicing the capitals of these two key MENA economies.”
The volume of trade exchange between Saudi Arabia and Egypt in recent years has registered a significant increase, reaching SR117.5 billion ($ 31.3 billion) between 2004 and 2013. Saudi Arabia was amongst the countries receiving the highest number of Egyptian exports last year.