Route Analysis: Jeddah-Marseille

Saudi Arabia’s flynas is opening a new route to France in November with the launch of a Jeddah-Marseille service.

Flights will depart from Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International (JED) twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays, returning from Marseille (MRS) on Thursdays and Sundays. The route will begin on Nov. 9.

The planned launch comes after flynas signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Air Connectivity Program to launch new direct flights to four cities in Europe, North Africa and Central Asia.

In addition to the new Marseille service, the LCC vowed to begin three flights per week to both Algeria’s capital Algiers (ALG) and Casablanca (CMN) in western Morocco, as well as a 2X-weekly route to Almaty (ALA) in Kazakhstan.

Saudi Arabia’s connectivity scheme, funded by the country’s Public Investment Fund, offers airlines financial incentives to fly routes that have so far been deemed unprofitable. It forms part of the kingdom’s ambition to connect the country to 250 destinations and attract 100 million tourists per year by 2030.

Once the Jeddah-Marseille route launches, it will become the sole service connecting the destinations. Only two other Saudi Arabia-France routes are operating at the present time, with Saudia flying daily from both Jeddah and Riyadh (RUH) to Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG).

According to data provided by Sabre Market Intelligence, O&D traffic between Jeddah and Marseille totaled 3,921 two-way passengers in 2019. In the wider Saudi Arabia-France market, the figure was 250,458 passengers.

Alongside the new Marseille route, flynas has already launched one new service this month, with twice weekly flights between Al Ula (ULH) and Cairo (CAI) starting on Oct. 6.

Two more routes will begin before the end of October, with Riyahd-Mumbai (BOM) starting on Oct. 20 and Dammam (DMM)-Mumbai launching on Oct. 31. Service will be daily and 4X-weekly respectively.

Flynas has a fleet of 38 Airbus narrowbody aircraft, compared with 25 in January 2021. CAPA Fleet Database shows that the LCC has a further 72 on order, including 62 A320neos and 10 A321XLRs.

JED-MRS