Sama Airlines

Infobox_Airline
airline = Sama


logo_size = 190
fleet_size = 7
destinations = 12
IATA = ZS
ICAO = SMY
callsign = NAJIM
parent = Investment Enterprises Ltd
company_slogan = Simply Fly
founded = May 2007
headquarters =
key_people = HRH Prince Bandar bin Khalid al Faisal (Chairman), Andrew Cowen (Chief Executive Officer), Mark Breen (Chief Operations Officer)
website = http://www.flysama.com/

Sama LelTayaran Company Limited, operating as Sama is a low-cost airline based at King Fahad International Airport, Dammam, Saudi Arabia. It is the second low-cost airline to fly in Saudi Arabia and commenced its domestic flights in May 2007. The airline is a short-haul carrier serving destinations within Saudi Arabia and other destinations across the Middle East. The name 'Sama' has various layers of meaning in Arabic and relevance to the airline business.

History

The airline was founded by Investment Enterprises Ltd, chaired by Prince Bandar bin Khalid al Faisal, with the support of Mango Aviation Partners, a United Kingdom firm specialising in low fare airline start-ups.

Initial investment was received from 30 major Saudi private and institutional investors including Olayan Financial Co, Xenel Industries Ltd, Saudi Industrial Services Co, Sara Development Company Ltd and Modern Investment Company for Trade and Industries.

Mango Aviation Partners was established by a number of senior executives with many years worth of experience in the UK and European low fares airline industry. As such they brought the specific expertise necessary to establish and develop Sama.

Destinations

Sama serve the following:

Domestic

*Abha (Abha Regional Airport)
*Dammam (King Fahd International Airport)
*Gurayat (Gurayat Domestic Airport)
*Ha'il Ha'il Regional Airport
*Jeddah (King Abdulaziz International Airport)
*Jizan (Gizan Regional Airport)
*Medina (Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz Airport)
*Al Qasim (Gassim Regional Airport)
*Rafha (Rafha Domestic Airport)
*Riyadh (King Khalid International Airport)
*Tabuk (Tabuk Regional Airport)
*Ta'if (Ta’if Regional Airport)

International

*Abu Dhabi (Abu Dhabi International Airport)
*Aleppo (Aleppo International Airport)
*Alexandria (Al Nozha Airport)
*Amman (Queen Alia International Airport)
*Assiut (Assiut Airport)
*Beirut (Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport)
*Damascus (Damascus International Airport)
*Latakia (Bassel Al-Assad International Airport)
*Sharjah (Sharjah International Airport)
*Sharm el-Sheikh (Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport)

Fleet

The Sama Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft (at March 2008):

*6 Boeing 737-300
*1 Jetstream 41 (which is operated by Eastern SkyJets)

As of March 2008, the average age of the Sama Airlines fleet is 16.2 years ( [http://www.airfleets.net/ageflotte/SAMA.htm] ).

The aircraft have the Sama titles in Arabic on the left hand side, and in English on the right hand side.

External links

* [http://www.flysama.com Sama Airlines]
* [http://www.ch-aviation.ch/aircraft.php?search=set&airline=SLS&al_op=1 Sama Airlines Fleet]
* [http://www.airfleets.net/ageflotte/Sama.htm Sama Airlines Fleet Age]