British Airways to resume flights to Saudi Arabia

British Airways has announced that it will resume flights to Saudi Arabia next year.

The airline will begin flying from Heathrow Airport to the Saudi cities of Jeddah and Riyadh from March 29th 2009, reopening routes that have been closed since March 2005.

British Airways will boost the network of flights from Heathrow Airport to Riyadh and Jeddah with five services a week to both destinations.

Flights to Riyadh will be operated by a Boeing 777 and Jeddah services will use a Boeing 767, with both routes based at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5.

British Airways commercial director Robert Boyle said: "Resuming these flights makes commercial sense. The oil market is increasingly important globally and inward investment into Saudi Arabia has risen considerably in the last couple of years.

"We can start these flights now because the aviation market between Britain and Saudi Arabia has recently been liberalised."

Next summer, British Airways' network will see it flying to 150 destinations around the world.

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