Saudi’s Flynas looks to dry-lease market for pilgrimage surge
Flynas again plans to increase its exposure to the long-haul sector, as it seeks to take advantage of growing numbers of religious travellers to the country. The airline had a brief foray into the long-haul market in 2014, when it launched services to several Far East nations, as well as to the UK and Morocco, using leased Airbus A330s. The venture was halted within months, when load factors failed to live up to expectations. “We’re looking at returning to the long-haul market on a dry-lease basis,” Flynas SVP-commercial Paul Byrne said. “It’s a matter of economics more than anything. Previously, we used wet-lease quite heavily for the Haj [pilgrimage] period, which is around 4 to 5 weeks’ flying. The amount of money we paid for those would almost pay for a year’s dry lease.” <br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2018-05-01/unaligned/saudi2019s-flynas-looks-to-dry-lease-market-for-pilgrimage-surge
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Saudi’s Flynas looks to dry-lease market for pilgrimage surge
Flynas again plans to increase its exposure to the long-haul sector, as it seeks to take advantage of growing numbers of religious travellers to the country. The airline had a brief foray into the long-haul market in 2014, when it launched services to several Far East nations, as well as to the UK and Morocco, using leased Airbus A330s. The venture was halted within months, when load factors failed to live up to expectations. “We’re looking at returning to the long-haul market on a dry-lease basis,” Flynas SVP-commercial Paul Byrne said. “It’s a matter of economics more than anything. Previously, we used wet-lease quite heavily for the Haj [pilgrimage] period, which is around 4 to 5 weeks’ flying. The amount of money we paid for those would almost pay for a year’s dry lease.” <br/>
