Saudi Arabia’s domestic airports are witnessing active travel due to the summer break and Eid al-Adha.
According to a report prepared by the Saudi newspaper “Al-Watan,” internal flights experienced a price increase due to the high numbers of passengers within a week. The kingdom has 15 domestic airports.
A survey published by the newspaper in early July 2022 revealed a significant increase in the prices of domestic flights, ranging between 32 percent and 314 percent.
According to the survey, which compared the prices of flights on June 25, 2022, and those on June 30, flights between Dammam and Riyadh experienced the lowest rate of increase, with a 32 percent increase, while flights to Jeddah experienced a 259 percent increase.
The cost of a trip to Taif experienced a 314 percent increase, a ticket to Madinah increased 311 percent, while flights to Abha experienced a 152 percent increase.
The expansion and complexity of the kingdom’s airspace, as well as the spacing of locations and the variety of places where people congregate and visit, are to blame for the price increases.
The rise in fuel prices led to the transformation of domestic travel from land to air.
The kingdom has been working hard in recent years to revitalize the domestic tourism sector.
Price instability
Since last April, all Saudi Arabian airlines have experienced price fluctuations that have affected the costs of domestic flight tickets between Saudi cities.
As a result, residents have voiced their complaints on Twitter using the hashtag “#internal flights prices,” urging the country’s civil aviation authority to end the pricing chaos for airline tickets, protect consumers and stop manipulating prices targeting citizens and residents.
However, it appears that in Saudi Arabia, the General Authority of Civil Aviation processes were insufficient to control ticket prices which have continued to increase in recent months.
The Civil Aviation Authority attributes the increase to the impact of aviation on the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected the entire world, free-market policy and fuel price increases.
The authority stated that it would work hard to provide reasonable fares for passengers, improve competitiveness in the air transportation sector and prioritize passenger rights and protection.
Control issues
In this aspect, some argue that insufficient airline regulations has caused pricing fluctuations, resulting in an unfamiliar situation where certain international flights are less expensive than their domestic equivalents.
According to an article written by Ali Al-Shuraimi and published in the Saudi newspaper “Al-Watan” last April, the behavior of some airline staff isn’t even in accordance with good customer service and communication etiquette, adding that “Even if you wrote in the form about your displeasure with the service, no one would contact you.”
He continued, “All these indicators lead to a lack of monitoring and accountability for airlines.”
He went on to say, “We aspire to reach 30 million tourists, but according to the most recent Skytrax rating, we are not among the top 20 airlines in the world.”
The domestic aviation industry is served by three Saudi companies – state-owned Saudi Airlines, Flyadeal, a low-cost airline connected with Saudi Airlines and Flynas, a private sector low-cost airline.