Wizz Air has announced a new service from London to Jeddah, making it the first budget airline to directly connect the UK and Saudi Arabia.
Flights from London Gatwick to the port city on the kingdom’s Red Sea coast begin on March 1 and tickets, costing £134.99 ($176) for a one-way trip, are already on sale. The seven-hour flight, the longest operated by any low-cost airline in the UK, will operate daily via Wizz Air’s new Airbus A321.
The news comes a week after Virgin Atlantic announced a new daily route from Heathrow to Riyadh starting on March 30. And British Airways revealed in May that it will be resuming flights to Jeddah from London Heathrow in November, after a five-year hiatus.
A report released by travel industry data platform OAG on Wednesday ranked Riyadh as the 42nd most connected airport in the world, moving it up six places since last year. That makes it the fourth most connected airport in the Middle East and Africa, behind only Dubai, Doha and Johannesburg. The same report found that the airport is now connected to 117 countries.
Cathay Pacific, meanwhile, announced in June that flights from Hong Kong to Riyadh will start in October and operate three times a week. In April, China Eastern became the first Chinese airline to launch a scheduled service to Saudi Arabia, with three direct flights a week from Shanghai to Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia is also one of the most popular destinations for UAE travellers, thanks to tourists and commuters. Emirates added more services to Saudi Arabia earlier this year and now operates 72 weekly flights, including 22 to Dammam, 21 to Jeddah and Riyadh, and eight to Madinah.
Etihad Airways has been flying from Abu Dhabi to Saudi Arabia for 20 years. It operates 81 weekly flights, including 28 to Riyadh and Jeddah, 21 to Dammam and, since June, four to Al Qassim.
Another new route started last week when Saudi airline Flynas began two new Sharjah services. The budget airline is now flying to Sharjah seven times a week from Jeddah and twice from Madinah.
An eye on India and beyond
India is also getting in on the act. On Wednesday, Air India Express launched a direct weekly flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Riyadh.
In June, Akasa Air began operations from Riyadh. The Indian airline has since added non-stop flights between Mumbai and Ahmedabad to Jeddah. Meanwhile, low-cost airline IndiGo will begin direct daily flights between Bengaluru and Jeddah from September 30.
“Jeddah will be connected to six destinations in India via 49 IndiGo flights a week,” said Vinay Malhotra, IndiGo's head of global sales.
It means that there are now more than 330 direct flights a week between India and Saudi Arabia, operated by eight different airlines.
The rapidly improving connectivity will support Saudi Arabia’s goal of attracting 7.5 million Indian visitors a year by 2030. It is an ambition bolstered this week by the launch of a tourist campaign specifically for the Indian market.
According to Alhasan Aldabbagh, president of APAC Markets at Saudi Tourism Authority, 1.6 million Indians travelled to Saudi in 2023. “India holds an incredibly special place in our hearts and we are committed to making India the number one source market by 2030,” he said.
Earlier this week, the country also launched an international campaign called This Land is Calling. Saudi Arabia opened its doors to wide-scale tourism in 2019 and development since then has been rapid, led by the Red Sea, Neom City and AlUla projects and boosted by new visa initiatives.
New luxury resorts and hotels have opened across the country, including the most expensive hotel in the region, and many more are in the pipeline under the country's Vision 2030 initiative.
In 2023, Saudi Arabia’s travel sector was worth $17 billion, reflecting a 16 per cent increase on the previous year. That growth has continued this year.
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Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Global Fungi Facts
• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally
• Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered
• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
• Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
More on Quran memorisation:
No Shame
Lily Allen
(Parlophone)
MATCH INFO
RB Leipzig 2 (Klostermann 24', Schick 68')
Hertha Berlin 2 (Grujic 9', Piatek 82' pen)
Man of the match Matheus Cunha (Hertha Berlin
'Panga'
Directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Starring Kangana Ranaut, Richa Chadha, Jassie Gill, Yagya Bhasin, Neena Gupta
Rating: 3.5/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
if you go
The flights
Fly direct to Kutaisi with Flydubai from Dh925 return, including taxes. The flight takes 3.5 hours. From there, Svaneti is a four-hour drive. The driving time from Tbilisi is eight hours.
The trip
The cost of the Svaneti trip is US$2,000 (Dh7,345) for 10 days, including food, guiding, accommodation and transfers from and to Tbilisi or Kutaisi. This summer the TCT is also offering a 5-day hike in Armenia for $1,200 (Dh4,407) per person. For further information, visit www.transcaucasiantrail.org/en/hike/
Trump v Khan
2016: Feud begins after Khan criticised Trump’s proposed Muslim travel ban to US
2017: Trump criticises Khan’s ‘no reason to be alarmed’ response to London Bridge terror attacks
2019: Trump calls Khan a “stone cold loser” before first state visit
2019: Trump tweets about “Khan’s Londonistan”, calling him “a national disgrace”
2022: Khan’s office attributes rise in Islamophobic abuse against the major to hostility stoked during Trump’s presidency
July 2025 During a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump calls Khan “a nasty person”
Sept 2025 Trump blames Khan for London’s “stabbings and the dirt and the filth”.
Dec 2025 Trump suggests migrants got Khan elected, calls him a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
Silent Hill f
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Rating: 4.5/5
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
Chef Nobu's advice for eating sushi
“One mistake people always make is adding extra wasabi. There is no need for this, because it should already be there between the rice and the fish.
“When eating nigiri, you must dip the fish – not the rice – in soy sauce, otherwise the rice will collapse. Also, don’t use too much soy sauce or it will make you thirsty. For sushi rolls, dip a little of the rice-covered roll lightly in soy sauce and eat in one bite.
“Chopsticks are acceptable, but really, I recommend using your fingers for sushi. Do use chopsticks for sashimi, though.
“The ginger should be eaten separately as a palette cleanser and used to clear the mouth when switching between different pieces of fish.”
