Qatar Airways to launch Saudi service

Qatar Airways (QA) is to launch domestic operations in Saudi Arabia in H1 2014, under the name Al Maha Airways. Chief executive Akbar Al-Baker told Reuters at the Dubai Airshow on 18 November that the airline would start with the main Saudi cities, including Riyadh and Jeddah, and then move to the second-tier cities. The project has been in the pipeline for well over a year. QA and Gulf Air each won a domestic carrier licence late in 2012 (GSN 939/15, 929/12, 927/13), the first foreign airlines to win such a licence for what is potentially a highly lucrative market.