Qatar Airways Lands First Flight At New NEOM Bay Airport In Saudi Arabia
NEOM, the new futuristic city emerging in the northwest corner of Saudi Arabia, is progressing forward with its regional airline connectivity with the announcement of a new flight service from Qatar Airways.
Qatar Airways has inaugurated a new service to the NEOM Bay Airport (IATA: NUM). The Doha, Qatar-based airline landed its first of two weekly flights involving its home hub at Hamad International Airport (IATA: DOH) on December 9.
It is using an Airbus A320-214 for the 1,650-mile flights. Qatar Airways flight 1205 departs NEOM Bay for Doha on Saturdays at 14:00 and Thursdays at 13:40. From Doha to NEOM Bay, Qatar Airways flight 1204 leaves Hamad International Airport at 06:55 on Saturdays and 06:35 on Thursdays.
The expanding operations at NEOM Bay are part of the Saudi Vision 2030 plan announced in 2016. One of the main pillars was to increase the economic, social, and cultural connections between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region and beyond.
While diversification from reliance on the oil industry was a significant focus of the initiative, Saudi Vision 2030 was also oriented towards making Saudi Arabia the heart of the Arab and Islamic worlds. The kingdom is working towards accomplishing this goal by using a similar model that is currently in place in Doha and Dubai to become more of a transportation hub in the region.
The six-runway King Salman International Airport in Riyadh is a major part of this initiative, as is the futuristic NEOM city and the NEOM Bay airport. According to Arab News, the kingdom has been effective with its tourism strategy this year, ranking second in the world in tourist arrivals during the first seven months of this year. It also saw a 58% increase in tourism during the same period this year compared with pre-pandemic numbers from 2019.
Qatar Airways became the fourth airline to provide passenger service to NEOM Bay. The other airlines currently serving the airport are Flyadeal, FlyDubai, and Saudia. Saudia offers the most destinations from the airport, including Dammam, Dubai, Jeddah, London-Heathrow, and Riyadh.
The flights to NEOM Bay are the tenth destination in Saudi Arabia served by Qatar Airways. According to the airline, they also serve AlUla, Dammam, Gassim, Jeddah, Medina, Riyadh, Tabuk, Taif, and Yanbu with more than 125 flights daily.
Just two months ago, in October, the airline reopened flights to Yanbu and started new flight service to AlUla and Tabuk. It also resumed three weekly flights to Taif in January of this year.
According to a statement, Qatar Airways’ new service to Saudi Arabia is focused on serving leisure and business travel within the region. From a leisure perspective, the airline seeks to connect passengers to many cultural and natural destinations across the country. For business travellers, it is all about strengthening the commercial and economic ties between the two Middle Eastern powerhouse nations.
