Saudi Arabia's flyadeal to start India flights in first quarter of 2026, says CEO

Bullish on the fast-growing Indian aviation market, Saudi Arabia's no-frills carrier flyadeal will start flights to Indian cities, including Mumbai, from the first quarter of 2026.

The airline's CEO, Steven Greenway, told PTI that India is one of the "most hyper-competitive markets" in the world and there is a need to have an "absolute, brutal focus on unit cost".

A sister company of Saudia Airlines, the Jeddah-based profitable flyadeal has been flying for over eight years and expects to have 46 planes in its fleet by the end of this year. Currently, the carrier has 42 A320 family aircraft and has also placed orders for 10 wide-body A330 Neos that are expected to start coming in from July 2027.

"Our intent is to start operating (to India) in the quarter one of next year... We expect to do the metropolises like Mumbai and Delhi, and also, our focus will be the secondary cities in India... I think Mumbai would be the first one," Greenway told PTI in an interview.

Saudi Arabia and India have a significant domestic aviation market, and flyadeal connects 25 destinations in its home country.

Greenway said flyadeal is looking to have a codeshare partnership with a domestic carrier in India. A codeshare partnership allows an airline to book passengers on its partner carrier in a single ticket.

To a query on why the airline is now looking at India, Greenway responded with a smile by asking "why not? "Well, let's have a look at it (the market). You have three million Indians in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia itself... (then there are) trading partnerships and strong bilaterals," he said.

The airline expects to connect to up to six destinations in India by the end of 2026 from its hubs in Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam. Another focus area will be services for Haj and Umrah pilgrimage.

Noting that India is a very hyper-competitive market, Greenway said an airline cannot just go into India, saying there is over a billion people and "we will make it work".

"You have to be very well-run. You have to have an absolute, brutal focus on unit cost in terms of being a really efficient operator," he said.

According to him, India is also one of the few aviation markets in the world where a low cost carrier has got a majority of the market share.

IndiGo is India's largest domestic carrier with a domestic market share of over 65 per cent.

In the backdrop of persisting concerns that Gulf carriers have been taking away international traffic from India, Greenway said that India and Saudi Arabia have a similar legacy, and both countries have not had their fair share of air traffic.

"We haven't been strong in offering direct offerings between both countries, and we think there's a lot of room for development there," Greenway said.

On whether Saudi Arabian airlines could take international traffic from India, the flyadeal chief said the key difference is that both countries have a huge domestic market unlike places like Dubai, Doha, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi.

"There is a natural affinity between our two countries in terms of direct services. Will some passengers elect to fly over Saudi Arabia to and from destinations like the United States? Yeah, sure.

"Will Saudis potentially elect to fly over India and carry on to Southeast Asia or China? Yeah, absolutely," he said.Read about our editorial guidelines and ethics policy