Jeddah, KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA – flyadeal, Saudi Arabia’s fast-growing low-cost airline, has taken another step to widen its distribution strategy by going live on the Amadeus booking platform giving travel agents access to the airline’s growing network of flights.

Beginning with the domestic market – home to almost 4,000 travel agents accredited to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) – flyadeal will implement a phased rollout of the reservation tool to the trade in more countries over the next few months. When agents search for a particular route, the Amadeus GDS now displays flyadeal among the operating airlines.

As a digital first airline, connecting with a global distribution system (GDS) is a significant strategic move since flyadeal launched its first flight in September 2017.

flyadeal now operates over 200 daily scheduled services from bases in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam to more than 30 destinations across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and South Asia with a fleet of 42 Airbus A320 aircraft.

Steven Greenway, flyadeal Chief Executive Officer, said: “Signing up with Amadeus is a historic step for flyadeal. GDS connection expands distribution of our inventory of flights and fares, and offers the wider travel agency community with instant access, convenience and booking capability through their desktop terminals.

“Having scaled our operations over the years, building a strong domestic network of flights and increasingly moving into international operations, our business has evolved into more partnerships, including travel agencies which we see as a vital part of our growth story to complement our own direct booking channels.”

Rogier van Enk, flyadeal Chief Commercial and Customer Experience Officer, added: “As we start off in our home market of Saudi Arabia, the Amadeus booking tool will be rolled out to other international markets that we fly to and those that we don’t over the next few months.

“With flyadeal planning a pipeline of interline and codeshare agreements with other airlines over the next 12 months, GDS access plays an even more important commercial role to distribute our portfolio of products enabling travel agents to better serve their customers – our passengers.”

Low-cost airlines typically sell seats through their dedicated booking channels such as websites, mobile Apps and call centres. Over the past two years flyadeal has built internal capability by increasingly giving travel agents direct access to the airline’s website, but the GDS route is more comprehensive with potential global reach to tens of thousands of IATA-accredited agents.

Earlier this year, flyadeal joined the airline industry body IATA which has over 60,000 accredited travel agencies worldwide – the target audience that flyadeal is eventually aiming at. With agents automatically being members of IATA’s Billing and Settlement Plan, this also ensures a robust payment processing mechanism for airlines.

About flyadeal

On 23 September 2017, National Day of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, flyadeal began operations with its historic maiden flight from Jeddah to Riyadh. A pioneer and innovator, flyadeal was the first regional low-cost airline to be launched only across digital distribution channels. Being the sister airline of full-service national carrier Saudia — both under the umbrella ownership of Saudi Arabian Airlines Corporation (Saudia Group) — flyadeal was created for the price-conscious and tech-savvy consumer in mind in a market where 80 per cent of the Saudi population is aged less than 40 years and has at least two mobile phones.

flyadeal aims to stimulate travel, tourism and trade with its affordable, value for money everyday fares catering to leisure, religious, family and business travellers. Simplicity is key with an all-Economy Class cabin across flyadeal’s narrowbody fleet. With the Kingdom undergoing dramatic transformation through its Vision 2030 economic diversification drive, aviation and tourism are among the many sectors earmarked for dynamic growth. flyadeal is the fastest growing airline in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Middle East, recognised for excellence in on-time performance that is consistently above the global industry average.

flyadeal operates a young fleet of Airbus A320 narrowbody aircraft flying from bases in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam to destinations across Saudi Arabia with a growing international footprint in Europe, Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. The airline has flown over 40 million passengers since its inaugural flight. In May 2024, flyadeal placed its biggest ever order for 51 aircraft – 12 A320neos and 39 larger A321neos – with a delivery schedule beginning in 2027. In addition, flyadeal will operate long-haul scheduled services from 2027 with the phased induction of 10 Airbus A330neo widebody aircraft ordered by Saudia Group in April 2025.

By 2030, flyadeal plans to operate hundreds of routes that will see its fleet and network triple in number to over 100 aircraft and destinations, respectively. flyadeal’s aggressive expansion drive makes the rapidly growing airline one of the country’s most desirable companies to work for.

For more information, please contact:
Updesh Kapur
Corporate Communications Department
Email: updesh.kapur@flyadeal.com
www.flyadeal.com