Dubai: Saudi Arabia is set to get a third carrier after the country’s aviation body awarded the privately owned SaudiGulf Airlines a license to operate domestic flights earlier this month.

The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said on June 9 it had approved SaudiGulf’s application for an air operator certificate (AOC) and would formally hand it over at a ceremony on June 22.

SaudiGulf will “begin” to operate flights from Dammam’s King Fahad International Airport, GACA said on its website. It did not say when flights would start.

Owned by the Abdel Hadi Al Qahtani & Sons Group, SaudiGulf has said it plans to fly from Dammam to Jeddah, Riyadh and Dubai.

The airline will compete with state-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) and low cost carrier flynas. A second low cost carrier owned by Saudia, Flyadeal, plans to enter the market in 2017.

GACA’s announcement, which came more than a year after SaudiGulf intended to start operations, made no mention of the Qatar Airways-owned Al Maha Airways who has also applied to operate domestic flights in the kingdom.

Al Maha and SaudiGulf were two of the first airlines to apply when GACA said in 2012 that it would allow new carriers to operate domestic flights.

Qatar Airways group chief executive Akbar Al Baker said on June 3 the delay in launching Al Maha was creating operational challenges for the Doha-based airline. Qatar Airways has received eight aircraft painted in the green Al Maha colours and is using them in its fleet for the time being.

“We cannot keep that aircraft in Al Maha colours indefinitely because … we cannot go to Iran with Al Maha colours, we cannot go into Saudi Arabia with Al Maha colours unless we have the AOC,” Al Baker said.

A Qatar Airways spokesperson told Gulf News by email on Tuesday there was no update on its Saudi domestic AOC application.

BOX — Oman Air axes domestic Sohar service

Dubai: State carrier Oman Air said on Tuesday it is suspending flights from Sohar Airport in the country’s north after services failed to meet expectations.

Oman Air started flights from Sohar, which is 214 kilometres from the country’s main airport Muscat International, in November 2014.

Oman Air said in a statement Sohar services would be “temporarily” suspended “as they did not achieve target results since inauguration.”

Loss-making Oman Air is targeting profitability in 2017.