Riyadh - Sharikat Mubasher: Capital A, the parent company of the AirAsia airline brand and its affiliate businesses, sets sights on expanding its footprint in Saudi Arabia through a multi-faceted plan, making a significant move in its Middle East growth strategy.
This plan will begin with AirAsia introducing new routes to Riyadh and Dammam, while increasing flight frequencies to Jeddah from Kuala Lumpur, the company announced in a press release today.
Capital A also studies launching new routes from Bangkok and Jakarta to Riyadh, as part of its wider ambition to enhance Middle East connectivity across the ASEAN region.
This announcement followed Capital A’s high-level discussions with Saudi officials from the Ministry of Investment (MISA), the Ministry of Transport and Logistics Services, and the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA). The meetings explored strategic partnerships across airline connectivity, Red Sea tourism development initiatives, and potential collaborations in logistics and aircraft engineering services.
Commenting on these milestones, Tony Fernandes, CEO of Capital A, said: “We believe the new Riyadh route is projected to serve close to one million two-way passengers by 2026 and more than seven million by 2030, reflecting strong demand for increased connectivity between ASEAN and the Gulf region.”
As part of its expansion strategy in Saudi Arabia, Capital A will introduce its entire business ecosystem to the Kingdom, including Teleport, Asia Digital Engineering (ADE), and AirAsia MOVE, the digital travel platform offering seamless end-to-end travel booking solutions.
Teleport will explore working with Saudi logistics hubs and free trade zones to establish efficient cargo corridors between ASEAN and the Middle East, enabling faster, cost-effective movement of goods, including e-commerce.
Meanwhile, ADE will explore opportunities to collaborate with Saudi aviation stakeholders to support the Kingdom’s fast-growing aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) sector.
This may include establishing maintenance facilities at key Saudi airports, training and upskilling local talent in aviation engineering, and sharing best practices in cost-efficient, high-quality MRO services