State-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines will resume services to 33 international destinations next month as part of a phased return to pre-pandemic operation levels by early 2021.
After resuming limited international air travel for what it described as "exceptional cases" last month, the national carrier will now resume services to a number of cities in the Middle East, Asia, Europe and the US for "permitted travelers."
Among other destinations, this will include flights to Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Paris, Washington, as well as Amman, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Beirut, Kuwait, Dubai, Delhi, Manila, Mumbai, Cairo, Nairobi and Khartoum.
The announcement follows a marked improvement in Saudi Arabia's management of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country, which has seen new daily infections fall to around 400 so far in October from as high as 4,000-5,000 in June-July. Active cases now stand at just below 8,300, down from the peak of 63,026 in mid-July.
In place since mid-March, Saudi Arabia's Covid-19-related travel restrictions have been easing since the middle of September. But the restrictions will not be fully lifted until after 1 January 2021.
Saudi Arabia also on 18 October entered the second phase of its four-phase plan to gradually resume the Islamic Umrah pilgrimages, which were halted for around six months because of Covid-19.
Both the gradual ramp up of commercial flights and the restart of the Islamic Umrah pilgrimages for domestic and international pilgrims should spur an increase in jet fuel demand in the country, which recorded 70pc fall in the first eight months of this year to 31,500 b/d, against an average of 105,500 b/d in the corresponding period in 2019, according to the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (Jodi).
