Saudi Arabian carrier flynas is planning to broaden its route map with flights to Kyrgyzstan, the landlocked Central Asian state bordering China.
The airline intends to add two services from Jeddah, linking the city’s King Abdulaziz International Airport with Osh from Aug. 21 and Bishkek from Sept. 2. Both routes will operate three times per week using Airbus A320neo aircraft.
Osh is the second-largest city in Kyrgyzstan, located in the Fergana Valley in the south of the country, while Bishkek is the country’s largest city and capital, situated near the border with Kazakhstan. The cities will become the second and third Central Asia destinations in flynas’ network and the sole nonstop flights between Saudi Arabia and Kyrgyzstan.
The LCC commenced its inaugural route to the Central Asia region in August 2021, connecting Jeddah and Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Flights initially operated nonstop before switching to a one-stop service via Baku, Azerbaijan, between September 2022 and March 2023. Data provided by OAG Schedules Analyser shows that the airline’s nonstop Jeddah-Tashkent flights last operated in May, but are scheduled to resume in August.
In May, flynas launched a Request for Proposal (RFP) through Routes 360 to expand its network, inviting airports to pitch for new routes across the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Future targets include Bahrain, Bangladesh, India, Nigeria and Sri Lanka, targeting inbound tourists and religious traffic.
As most of Kyrgyzstan’s six million inhabitants are Turkic-speaking Muslims, the carrier will likely seek to attract religious pilgrimage passengers from Osh and Bishkek.
Flynas currently operates 44 A320-family aircraft on its scheduled network, along with four A330s. However, the airline firmed an order for 30 Airbus A320neo-family aircraft at the Paris Air Show on June 19, taking its total order with Airbus to 120 A320neo aircraft, including 10 A321XLRs.
The carrier has three main bases—at Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam—underpinning its network of 120 routes across 27 countries. It has already launched 15 new routes this year, building on 30 route launches in 2022.
In 2022, flynas carried almost 8.7 million passengers, putting it 15% ahead of 2019. During Q1 2023, passenger numbers totaled 2.4 million, representing a rise of some 26% compared with the same period in 2022.
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