New airline licences may take 3-6 months

Foreign airlines may need about three to six months to obtain operating licences letting them enter Saudi Arabia’s domestic aviation market, a spokesman for the General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) said yesterday.

GACA announced on Friday that Qatar Airways and Bahrain’s national carrier Gulf Air had become the first foreign airlines to obtain carrier licences under which they would be able to run local and international flights in the kingdom.

Fourteen foreign and local companies had applied for the licences, which mark a major reform of the aviation market in Saudi Arabia, the biggest Arab economy and by far the largest country in the Gulf geographically.

Currently, only national carrier Saudi Arabian Airlines and budget airline National Air Services serve a domestic market of about 27mn people. Foreign carriers can only fly in and out of Saudi Arabia, not within the country.

Over 54mn passengers passed through Saudi Arabia’s 27 airports last year, up 13.6% from 2010, according to GACA data. But the kingdom has one of the smallest airline networks in the region relative to its size, and passengers have complained about the limited range of flights as well as the quality of service.