NEW DELHI
\nRiyadh Air and Air India on Thursday announced a new partnership agreement to meet growing demand for Saudi-India travel and better connect both countries to global destinations. Saudi Arabia is the second-most visited destination for Indians, with about 3.4 million Indian tourists visiting the Kingdom in 2025, making up about 10 percent of the country\u2019s outbound tourism.
\nThe two flag carriers have signed a memorandum of understanding that could introduce both interline and codeshare arrangements in the near future, subject to regulatory approvals, Air India said in a statement.
\n\u201cThe two airlines will also explore collaboration across a range of areas, including reciprocal loyalty program benefits, cargo services, operational support and digital and technology initiatives designed to enhance the guest experience,\u201d the statement reads.
\nThe partnership supports growing demand for travel linked to business, tourism and family visits, reflecting the deep economic, cultural, and people-to-people ties between Saudi Arabia and India.\u201d India is expected to become the world\u2019s fourth-largest outbound tourism market by 2035, behind the US, China and Germany, the London-based research consultancy Capital Economics said last year.
\n\u201cIndia and Saudi Arabia are two important growth markets in global aviation today, and the scale and momentum in both countries make this a natural partnership,\u201d Air India CEO and Managing Director Campbell Wilson said in the statement. Earlier in February, Air India entered into a new codeshare agreement with Saudi Arabia\u2019s first flag carrier, Saudia, which gives their passengers streamlined booking and ticketing, smooth connections with a single itinerary, and baggage check-through to their final destinations.
\nRiyadh Air\u2019s new partnership with Air India \u201creflects the deep and cultural and economic bonds\u201d between the two countries, its CEO, Tony Douglas, said. \u201cIndia is one of the most important and dynamic aviation markets in the world, and this partnership with Air India marks a defining step in Riyadh Air\u2019s mission to connect Saudi Arabia with key global destinations,\u201d he added. The latest Saudi-India partnership comes as the Kingdom continues to boost investment in aviation and tourism under Vision 2030.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW DELHI Riyadh Air and Air India on Thursday announced a new partnership agreement to meet growing demand for Saudi-India travel and better connect both countries to global destinations. Saudi Arabia is the second-most visited destination for Indians, with about 3.4 million Indian tourists visiting the Kingdom in 2025, making up about 10 percent of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":98636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98639,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98625\/revisions\/98639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}