Its presence in an ever-growing market Middle Eastwhere demand for air travel is growing at a faster rate than the global average, Aegean Sea. The goal of the airline, through its hub in Athens, is to be the main choice for those who want to transfer from an Arab country not only to Greece, but also to a European city. After all, Greek-Arab relations are always strong, and the value of bilateral trade with Saudi Arabia reach 1.3 billion euros in 2021. In the spring of 2022, it took place in Riyadh And Greek-Saudi Investment Forum.

Thus, from May and throughout the year, the airline will connect Athens with Dammam, the fifth most populous city in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh, Jeddah, Mecca and Medina. The airline will operate flights from El. Venizelos” to King Fada Airport, which is the third largest passenger traffic in Saudi Arabia with a passenger traffic of about 10 million people. Also from June, the number of regular weekly flights to Riyadh and Jeddah will increase, and Athens will connect directly to Kuwait.

Aegean’s goal is to become the first choice for those who want to move from an Arab country not only to Greece, but also to a European city.

In total, the airline will operate up to 11 flights a week to and from Saudi Arabia, adding new Airbus 321 neo aircraft to its fleet operating on these routes. The new aircraft that the company will receive – by the end of this year they will be added to the fleet of nine aircraft of the neo family – serve Aegean’s strategy to further expand its presence as a regional carrier. In this direction, this summer Aegean will connect Athens with Cairo and Alexandria with two and three daily flights respectively and will offer twice as many seats as compared to the previous year. It will also connect Alexandria with Athens with three weekly flights, as well as operate four flights a week all year round from Athens to Amman, Jordan. And in addition to the Athens-Beirut route, which runs daily and all year round, new seasonal routes are being added connecting Mykonos and Heraklion directly to Beirut.

In the wider Middle East region, Aegean has been operating since 2009, starting with a direct connection to Lebanon, with scheduled and charter flights. In recent years, the airline has been constantly adding new destinations (Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and now Kuwait) and increasing both the frequency of routes and the number of seats offered. Late last month, Aegean announced that it would also connect Ben Gurion to Tel Aviv this summer with three new direct scheduled routes from Ioannina, Chania and Kalamata, linking Israel’s second largest city with Athens and Thessaloniki year-round. Boeing analysts predict that passenger traffic in the Middle East will grow by 4% annually over the next twenty years, with the need for approximately 3,000 new aircraft.