March 21, 2007: Sama, Saudi Arabia’s latest entrant into the no-frills carrier arena, is likely to hit the markets with an initial pubic offering soon.

The move for an IPO follows realisation privatisation of the aviation sector would make the Saudi kingdom more attractive for business. The company has high on its agenda a project nicknamed Saudisation, which will lure more business into the Saudia Arabian kingdom through such plans and programmes. The inaugural flight of Sama took off on January 7 this year from Riyadh to Dammam. According to reports, the airline will use the King Fahd International Airport in Dhahran as the hub for its fleet. The airline has lined up operations with four Boeing 737 planes and is planning to raise the number to 35 in the next few years.

The airline had unveiled its services across the kingdom with a promotional offer of 10,000 free seats and Dammam, Riyadh, Jeddah, Madinah and Jizan were the preferred destinations. The low cost airline also plans to recruit more than 5,000 staffers in the company in the next five years, said a report. According to the company top bosses, the best thing in an economy aviation company is that for every vacancy it provides, it creates five others at the companies it deals with. The recruitment would mean that it would be a potential job generator.