Saudia

IanFarquharson said:
Loads go down at Ramadan not up !
Click to expand...
But Jeddah is the gateway to Makkah and Madinah…? A good amount of travel groups do go now as well on these ‘Umrah Packages’.

I’ve not gone with them but them but I do hear they bring a lot of people.

Surely a good amount of the Muslim population in Birmingham would go during this time period. I would have expected them to go a little bit more up as compared to last year.

We’ve seen in one day PAX numbers going over 700+ in total on Saudia, if I recall correctly that would have been on the 2nd January 2025?

I returned on that day. And I will say the acft was full to the rafters. To go from a 357 seater to a 144 seater? Quite the big drop in seats that can be sold, especially if it’s only 120 guest seats, and 24 in biz, the same amount of seats which are on the 787s. Something I ought to mention as well, if 4w with 321XLR, it’s still a drop in seats. Say we have all 789s for April to make it easier. There will be 17 total Saudia flights in April. If we replace that with the 321XLR in April…

789s only:
298 x 17 = 5,066 seats

321XLR:
144 x 17 = 2,448 seats

One could say, oh but Adam? Not all seats sell? I’m well aware that not all seats sell, but the good majority of them do.

What about the periods where it’s super busy? If memory serves right, there was a good load factor for December 2024 as well.

I still think Saudia should retain the 789/78X’s, why else would they amp up a frequency and still keep said aircraft on the route? They’re a good competitor to EK and QR, some of the destinations which are serviced by those two carriers are also serviced by SV, in terms of price too. I found Saudia to be much more cheaper than those Middle Eastern carriers, and they still offer (imo) an amazing product on their Dreamliners. And I still think they are selling their seats even now because of this holy month.

Plus, to see Birmingham standing out with the XLR when MAN has the 787s and sometimes the 777s? For a second city of the UK if the XLR was put in, it’d be more like a laughing stock than anything to be blunt.

All I simply asked was for the numbers, I didn’t expect it to evolve into this as I was only a bit curious and wanted to see the statistics for these last few flights… 🙂
 
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AdamHussain07 said:
But Jeddah is the gateway to Makkah and Madinah…? A good amount of travel groups do go now as well on these ‘Umrah Packages’.

I’ve not gone with them but them but I do hear they bring a lot of people.

Surely a good amount of the Muslim population in Birmingham would go during this time period. I would have expected them to go a little bit more up as compared to last year.

We’ve seen in one day PAX numbers going over 700+ in total on Saudia, if I recall correctly that would have been on the 2nd January 2025?

I returned on that day. And I will say the acft was full to the rafters. To go from a 357 seater to a 144 seater? Quite the big drop in seats that can be sold, especially if it’s only 120 guest seats, and 24 in biz, the same amount of seats which are on the 787s. Something I ought to mention as well, if 4w with 321XLR, it’s still a drop in seats. Say we have all 789s for April to make it easier. There will be 17 total Saudia flights in April. If we replace that with the 321XLR in April…

789s only:
298 x 17 = 5,066 seats

321XLR:
144 x 17 = 2,448 seats

One could say, oh but Adam? Not all seats sell? I’m well aware that not all seats sell, but the good majority of them do.

What about the periods where it’s super busy? If memory serves right, there was a good load factor for December 2024 as well.

I still think Saudia should retain the 789/78X’s, why else would they amp up a frequency and still keep said aircraft on the route? They’re a good competitor to EK and QR, some of the destinations which are serviced by those two carriers are also serviced by SV, in terms of price too. I found Saudia to be much more cheaper than those Middle Eastern carriers, and they still offer (imo) an amazing product on their Dreamliners. And I still think they are selling their seats even now because of this holy month.

Plus, to see Birmingham standing out with the XLR when MAN has the 787s and sometimes the 777s? For a second city of the UK if the XLR was put in, it’d be more like a laughing stock than anything to be blunt.

All I simply asked was for the numbers, I didn’t expect it to evolve into this as I was only a bit curious and wanted to see the statistics for these last few flights… 🙂
Click to expand...

I think you may well be missing the point. The majority of PAX flying from BHX to the Middle East on EK/QR/SV are not Muslim VFR or Muslim Pilgrims but are instead tourists. Of these tourists, a majority will be connecting passengers on to second destinations with the rest staying within the Middle East.

The reality is that whilst Ramadan does increase demand for Muslim VFR or Muslim Pilgrims, the biggest impact is that it massively surprises tourist demand. This suppression on tourist demand massively outweighs any increased demand by pilgrims. As such, for the period between February Half Term and Easter - normally when Ramadan takes place - passage levels to the Middle East tend to be lower!

For February, it looks like the month will end with a Load Factor of around 70-72% or around 205 pax per flight.
 
nwoody2001 said:
I think you may well be missing the point. The majority of PAX flying from BHX to the Middle East on EK/QR/SV are not Muslim VFR or Muslim Pilgrims but are instead tourists. Of these tourists, a majority will be connecting passengers on to second destinations with the rest staying within the Middle East.

The reality is that whilst Ramadan does increase demand for Muslim VFR or Muslim Pilgrims, the biggest impact is that it massively surprises tourist demand. This suppression on tourist demand massively outweighs any increased demand by pilgrims. As such, for the period between February Half Term and Easter - normally when Ramadan takes place - passage levels to the Middle East tend to be lower!

For February, it looks like the month will end with a Load Factor of around 70-72% or around 205 pax per flight.
Click to expand...
Ah, right. I think I understand fully now, my intial thoughts were just that SV was mostly used for pilgrimage traffic. I had such a flawed way of thinking 🤦‍♂️ Thank you and cheers for clearing that up for me. I just thought it was weird of a prospect of downgrading to an XLR when EK uses an A388 and QR with their 788…

Oh and, I did not mean to sound even remotely rude… if I did come off to some as being rude, I apologise 😖

Solid figure nonetheless for this month, better than last year aye?
 
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