Saudi Arabia: Saudi low-cost airline flynas launched its first direct flight between Jeddah and Djibouti on Jan. 8, further expanding its network in Africa. 

According to a press statement, the inaugural celebration was held at King Abdulaziz International Airport and was attended by Djibouti’s Ambassador to the Kingdom Dya-Eddine Said Bamakhrama and representatives from flynas and Jeddah Airport Co. 

The inaugural flight was welcomed at the African country by Faisal Al-Qabbani, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Djibouti, and Hassan Humad Ibrahim, theDjibouti’s minister of infrastructure and transport. 

The expansion is part of the airline’s “We Connect the World to the Kingdom” initiative and supports Saudi Arabia’s National Civil Aviation Strategy, which aims to expand connectivity to 250 international destinations and reach 330 million passengers.

The initiative is also expected to strengthen the Kingdom’s National Tourism Strategy, which aims to attract more than 150 million tourists by the end of this decade. 

In the statement, flynas said it will operate three weekly flights from Jeddah to Djibouti. 

Flyadeal launches five new routes

In a separate statement, Saudi low-cost airline flyadeal said that it launched five routes from its operating bases of Dammam, Riyadh, and Jeddah, marking the start of a major expansion drive that includes entry to Pakistan next month.

According to the statement, the routes include 14 domestic flights a week from Dammam to Najran, Tabuk, and Yanbu. 

The airline said that it launched flights from Riyadh and Jeddah to the Jordanian capital, Amman, with a total of 10 flights a week. 

The statement added that preparations are also underway for the start of twice-weekly flights to Pakistan’s financial capital, Karachi, from Riyadh and Jeddah, effective Feb. 2. 

“Expanding our domestic and international networks has been the focus of our planning team in recent months to provide leisure and business travelers with more choice, options and more importantly, greater air connectivity,” said Steven Greenway, CEO of flyadeal. 

He added: “As more aircraft join flyadeal’s fleet during 2025, we will continue to inject additional capacity into our three bases with new routes and extra frequencies, part of a system wide expansion plan over the next 12 months.”