- I recently went to Saudi Arabia.
- Is there any cut back in Siberia
in the business class food?
- Is there any Saudi woman flying or working for Saudia?
- This is my first time sitting in a car with a Saudi lady.
Things are changing inside the kingdom
All from Saudi Arabia?
- Yeah
- Seriously?
- There's a one minute delay.
We look at it,
we look at it.
where we're planning to bring 100 million
tourists to visit the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
So you're going to see many changes happening at Saudia.
- So Saudi Arabian airline is always
that kind of mysterious airline to the west.
And that's why I found it very interesting.
I recently went to Saudi Arabia
because the country has again open to the visitor.
And let's take a look
what's changed inside Saudia during the pandemic.
It's been two years since I flew on Saudia.
- Yeah
- And this is a new uniform.
I have not seen something like this,
I always seen blue uniform.
- Yes
- What exactly this is.
- It is the butler position,
the one who is in charge of first class.
- Welcome back to this flight.
This is the Saudia 787-9 Dreamliner
and something different, right?
I'm not in business class.
I'm not in the premium
I'm actually sitting in the economy
the first row of economy.
Why is there only,
40 passenger on board,
very light.
[Foreign Language]
- Welcome on board
My name is (indistinct)
My co-pilot is Haziem.
- Nice to meet you.
- And we are flying our
787-939 Dreamliner.
With Arabic calligraphy on the sides of the aircraft.
We are going from Dubai together.
Flying time will be two hours and 25 minutes
at an altitude of 38,000 ft.
Welcome on board.
- What's this?
- There is cleaning wipes.
- A cleaning kit.
(foreign language)
(bad sound quality due to engine)
(upbeat music)
(bad sound quality engine)
(aeroplane engine roaring)
(upbeat music)
- It's really beautiful.
I'm on the Saudia 787
on my way to Saudi Arabia,
I want to discover what's happened and what's changed
on Saudia since the pandemic.
(upbeat music)
Came down to the back,
to check out a standard seat
with
yes
it is narrow,
but the leg room we saw looks quite decent.
It has a leg rest as well.
Can you go pray now?
- No, I cannot pray because,
prayer right now is not allowed,
due to Corona.
- Hi, my name is Rami.
I'm the chef in Saudia. And today,
one of our selections in business class,
we have a shrimp cupsa with a red rices.
They have selection of Arabic measure,
and we have a cheesecake on the sides.
- Is there any cut back in Saudia
in the business class food?
- No, there is no cut back.
And we just continued the same concept we have been before.
- So I made the galley here and I want to have a chat with a
crew.
Cause I really want to find out what happened last year
during COVID as Saudia.
- Hi my name is Mariam
I'm from Pakistan
and I worked for Saudia
since 2012. It's been nine years.
- Did you get a salary cut or
a salary freeze?
- Actually there was no reduction for our salaries.
It was really flat for all of us.
- Really?
- Yeah
- No salary cuts in Saudia?
- Actually, no.
We were getting our full basic salaries, so
- You just flew less.
- Yeah
we just flying, we were just flying less,
but the accommodations
and the privileges,
it was all over there.
- Right? You both from Saudi Arabia?
- Yeah, both sure.
- The question is,
why Saudi airlines only has Saudi men?
Is there any Saudi woman flying or working for Saudia?
- Okay. Now recently, Saudi airline,
they start to hiring Saudi woman.
They...
- For, for fly attendants position?
- Yeah, as a fly attendant position.
They finished their classes, I think three months ago.
And they start flying
and they are starting doing their schedule
and flying every day.
But maybe in this fly,
it didn't face anyone open.
- So there are some already flying?
- Yeah,
- They already got their licence?
- Yeah they get the licence and they are flying
and they have a open and everything else.
(dramatic music playing)
- Okay, see you.
[Foreign Language]
- Alright, Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Bye-bye
- Just arrive at a new airport terminal in Jeddah.
I remember a year and a half ago,
I was here 2019 to make a video of when the airport was
nearly ready.
And now he's already using it.
- Welcome back (indistinctive), my friend.
- Nice to see you.
- Okay
[Foreign language over loud Speaker]
- Look how is it. Look.
- It's still here. All the fish are still around.
The shark is still there.
- No come, look.
- Oh the shark here?
- Yes
- Oh
Many
Sting-ray
Look at that.
Like a aeroplane. Sting-ray flying.
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Good morning. Good morning from Jeddah.
This is history making.
This is my first time sitting in a car
with a Saudi lady.
She's actually driving me.
- Everything has gone for better now.
Women Empowerment is a topic,
not only in Saudi Arabia,
but globally its a hot topic.
So being able to drive is one of those
big changes.
Being empowered at work.
Having more ladies,
in the work place is a big change.
We've been doing great.
And I think it's just,
that we, we haven't been,
having the opportunity to be highlighted
by the media, how men are actually.
- Tarien's driving really well,
but this is a test now reverse parking,
in the parking lot.
- Here we go.
- Oh, that's 10 out of 10.
That's unbelievable. Better than me.
(laughing)
- Thank you.
- Where are we travelling today?
- (Ladies answer) London
- London flight.
I will get it. I wanted to
hear that "Welcome on board on flight Saudia flight"
You see?
- Yeah
How we mention this.
Michella, even Bria
Amarella
Welcome on board Amarella flight, you see?
- This is Michelle class,
doing the practical service for a,
- Aha.
- regular flight.
- Okay
- So this is a new hire,
new cabin crew?
- New hire and Saudi female.
- Oh, Saudi female. Where is Saudi female?
Show me
- All from Saudi
- All from Saudi Arabia?
- Yeah.
- Seriously?
- Yes
- Wow.
Lucky me today. I got to meet early batch.
Also all Saudi national female soon will be on their way
working for the airlines Saudia. So Mia,
I have this question for you.
Is that what makes you want to become a
cabin crew work for Saudia?
- Taking generosity Saudia hospitality to the world.
- That's it?
- Yes.
- Thank you so much.
How long have your training been?
- We have been trained for two months and a half
and Charlotte tomorrow its our last day on training.
We'll learn safety,
security.
How to deal with the emergencies and
the service and hospitality.
- There's hundreds and thousands of application.
You got selected to work for Saudia as a female cabin crew.
How do you feel?
- It's surprising and it's challenging for me personally,
it's like getting out of my comfort zone.
So it's a good opportunity for me to face this
challenge.
- Were you interested in aviation?
Are you really interested in aviation or you just like to
travel?
- Certainly. Both to be honest
- Both
- Certainly it's a, it's a good opportunity
to travel the world.
- This is a class for upgrade regular flight attendants,
from nine to five, two to five, training.
- What exactly top five is?
- Top five it's a type of flights that we are
a service we give to passenger as five stars.
Here we are in Deborah's orientation room,
we are making a breakfast for the cabin crew
to be familiar
with all the equipment for the,
the serve the passenger.
This is the first step of the scenario.
We do it here in the actual Deli.
Here we have have the coffee maker.
The oven is actually the same on board the craft.
They can practise heating the meals.
- Here we are to soften and our skills
on the board to work more on hospitality service.
We have excellent service already on board.
So now it's more about the way
how we serve our guests and
how we deal with them.
- What did you learn personally yourself?
- I learned how to use my tone properly,
how to choose my words carefully,
when talking to the guests.
How to use my gestures.
How to greet people properly.
- Here we teach the cabin crew,
the type of seats in the on board two five flights.
For example,
we have here this week in the first class seat
flying to Washington, New York, Los Angeles,
London, and Paris.
And also here we have business class,
diamond seats we call it
they're flying on 787 air craft.
The cabin crew, they are trained.
And then the facility on how to use the seats
and fix the seat if the passenger
face a problem, the practise here.
- So, I am in Saudias Head Quarters momentarily,
I will meet the CEO Captain Ibrahim Koshy.
But here,
this is very interesting.
This is actually a real propeller
of the DC3.
This is the gift from American President,
Franklin Roosevelt's star in 1945.
Given to Saudia.
And that's how the airline started the story.
You were actually an airline captain before.
- Correct
- Tell us what, what aircraft you have flown on?
- Well, right now I'm flying a desk.
But before that,
I flown many of the aircraft.
Most of Saudias fleet,
eight, three hundreds, Boeing 737, G4,
the Embraer, 777, 83-30.
So I've been on most of Saudias fleet.
So a lot of experience and
as a check airman instructor
trained many, many of the pilots
that are currently flying with us.
- And what's your favourite aircraft that you have flown on?
- That's one question I'll get in trouble for,
for answering,
but I love both the Boeing and the Airbus aircraft.
- We haven't heard much about Saudia during the
last year and a half,
especially outside of the kingdom.
We knew very little about it. You know,
you gave us some updates?
What is Saudia up to what's the
latest development your company?
- Having the COVID under control within Saudia Arabia has
allowed our domestic market to actually return to
80% of our 2019 operational level.
And that's a strength that we have
there's we've seen in stronger
recovery in the domestic market.
The challenge is on the international side.
What we're trying to rebuild the network to the 2019 levels
and go beyond that restrictions imposed
in various parts of the world are making
that difficult.
Demand recovery is difficult to forecast as well.
- Is the past tradition, the history,
but moving forward your plans,
I want to hear more about that from you.
- Right now, when we're looking at the strategy.
Saudia had started a very ambitious strategy to be an
enabler for the vision 2030 of Saudi Arabia and the vision
2030, maybe not everybody's aware of it,
but it is a very ambitious and bold project where we're
planning to bring 100 million tourists to visit the kingdom
of Saudi Arabia.
We're planning to have 330 million airport users by 2030.
We're talking about increasing the religious traffic by up
to 35 million passengers, visiting Saudi Arabia annually.
So Saudi Arabian airlines as a,
as an enabler to this economy has a big challenge and a
great opportunity to have to put for growth.
So what we're very proud of our history and the 75 years
that Saudia has been in existence,
we're at a turning point and we're at a turning point
because you're going to see many changes happening,
happening on the network, on the inclusion, sustainability,
a new hub coming in for the airport.
We're working on operational excellence and a very strong
digital customer experience coming in over the
next two years.
So you're going to see many changes happening at Saudia.
We know the numbers for the, that are on the vision,
2030 for a hundred million passengers.
That's the vision 2030.
And we consider Saudia airlines,
the wings of vision 2030. We are enabler for that.
So it's interesting. You asked me about the
dashboard here.
It's something that not just myself as CEO,
but all of the executives in the airline are constantly
following up anything. And you can see something as,
as light as a one minute delay. We look at, we look at it.
Every executive in the airline is, is now aware of it.
Something flagged as a 30 minute delay or more it's,
it takes a major,
let's say a tone and everybody has to address what's the
root cause and we're working towards,
because one of the targets that we're working
towards is a very high OTP for the new hub coming in agenda.
- So, for my visit,
I can really feel things are changing inside the kingdom.
A couple of years ago,
it would be impossible to have a female driving me and also
seeing Saudi national female serving on the flights.
So the airline has been recently awarded by Skytrax as the
world's most improved airline,
but it still has a long way to go.
Personally I think Saudia has massive potential
if they can execute things with discipline.
I think the airlines set a turning point.
What's interesting will be the next five to 10 years to see
how Saudia develop itself onto the global aviation
footprint.