United Arab Emirates (UAE) low-cost carrier is to introduce a ninth Saudi Arabian destination to its network from Sharjah International Airport when it launches flights to Ha'il, an oasis city in Nejd in the north west of the country this week. The airline will introduce a three times weekly service to Ha’il Regional Airport from August 1, 2013 using its Airbus A320 jets.

Ha'il is a largely agricultural area with significant grain, date, and fruit production. It historically derived its wealth from being on the camel caravan route of the Hajj but now contributes a large percentage of the Kingdom's total produce. Air connectivity had been limited until flydubai introduced a twice weekly link to Dubai International Airport in February this year - Saudi Arabian Airlines also currently provides scheduled domestic links to Dammam, Jeddah and Riyadh.

Prior to this there were only limited air services. In the early 1980s the Saudi national carrier served the Pakistan city of Badin from Ha’il but since then international flights have been limited to occasional charters. A start-up carrier Arabia International Airlines has also expressed interest in flying from Ha’il to destinations including Doha and Dubai as part of a wider network of flights within Saudi Arabia.

“We are delighted to add Ha’il as our ninth destination within the Kingdom,” said, Adel Ali, Group Chief Executive Officer, Air Arabia. “Saudi Arabia is a key focus for us as we continue to expand our routes and destinations, three more flights on a weekly basis is another step in this plan.”

Air Arabia first launched services to Saudi Arabia in July 2004 when inaugurated links to Dammam, Jeddah and Riydah and it has subsequently added Madinah (September 2009), Qassim (July 2011), Yanbu (November 2011), Taif (June 2012) and Abha (May 2013). In 2012 an estimated 3.15 million O&D passengers travelled between UAE and Saudi Arabia with Air Arabia holding a 9.7 per cent share of this traffic.

In the table below we highlight the growing air service capacity available between Saudi Arabia and the UAE and look at the individual market share of airlines between the two countries over the past five years. The available seat capacity in this market has more than doubled during this period from just over 1.53 million seats in 2008 to almost 3.78 million in 2012.