Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia), the national flag carrier of Saudi Arabia, has announced plans to launch two new routes this June.

The carrier will commence flights to Athens from June 5 and Marrakesh on June 6.

Both flights will be standalone routes; operated nonstop and direct from Saudi Arabia to Morocco and Greece.

The Jeddah-Marrakesh route will be operated with a widebody Boeing 787 Dreamliner, with 24 seats in Business Class and 274 in Economy Class, operated three-times-weekly (Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays) effective June 6.

Saudia currently flies regular scheduled services to Casablanca, and Marrakesh becomes the carrier’s second destination in the country.

The airline is returning to Greece’s capital after services discontinued in 2008. The destination will provide an additional link for holidaymakers and business traffic, starting first with a Riyadh to Athens nonstop service, which later in the year will become a Jeddah-Athens service.

The Riyadh-Athens route will be operated with an Airbus A320 in a two-class configuration, four-times weekly (Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays).

Last year the airline flew more than 34 million passengers, and introduced five new routes to its network: Vienna (Austria), Trivandrum (India), Surabaya (Indonesia), Medan (Indonesia) and re-introduced flights to Cochin, India, in addition to three seasonal routes to: Izmir, Malaga and Moscow.

Saudia flies to 95 destinations worldwide, with a modern fleet of more than 160 narrow and widebody Airbus and Boeing aircraft. The average age of the Saudia fleet is less than five years. - TradeArabia News Service