Saudia fair with air fares

April 6, 2014

Jeddah, Apr 6: Saudi Arabian Airlines has no plans to raise domestic ticket prices since the domestic sector is not profit motivated, said a top official.

“Fares are pre-set and the carrier has no intention of raising prices,” said Saad Al-Suleiman, director of Passenger Service and Sales at Saudi Arabian Airlines.

Al-Suleiman was speaking at the launch of the airline’s first nonstop service from King Fahd International Airport (KFIA) in Dammam to Istanbul on Friday.

“Price hikes are confined to international flights and are not applicable to domestic flights,” he said. “The carrier views low-fare domestic flights as a type of national service as opposed to a profitable sector.”

Commenting on the latest announcement, Basil Al-Ghalayini, CEO of BMG Financial Group, pointed out that the entry of new airlines into the domestic market would offer an element of competition to the national carrier.

Al-Ghalayini said: This (Saudia fare) policy, otherwise called subsidy, is in line with the government's intention to allow the public to commute across the country without burdening them. This policy may continue until other alternatives are provided by the government such as the new pan-Kingdom train system.”

Al-Ghalayini, however, said the newly approved carriers might slightly fix their domestic fares higher than that of Saudia in return for better services.

Al-Suleiman also said new late-night services would operate from Dammam to Jeddah and Riyadh to provide connections for international flights.

“Small aircraft will be replaced by large aircraft with the increased number of services from KFIA to cope with regional demand,” he said.

According to John Sfakianakis, chief investment strategist at a Riyadh-based investment firm, any additional player in the domestic airlines sector should be good for the consumer “as long as there is a level-playing field for all players.”

He said: “Domestic fares are already low and it is hard to expect any downward pressure in the future. It is hard to expect significantly higher price because new airlines have to compete with the existing fare system.

“The domestic fare pricing system is cutthroat and one-sided. What could change is the customer experience, timeliness and service by the new providers.”

Saudia says three direct weekly flights will operate between Dammam and Istanbul, which will be upgraded to daily flights from next year. “The airline also plans to operate four nonstop flights from Dammam to Beirut, two weekly flights to Amman and seven more weekly flights to Cairo,” said Al-Suleiman.

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UN condemns Israeli regime’s ‘organized torture’ against Palestinians

News Network

November 30,2025

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) has condemned the Israeli regime for enforcing a policy of “organized torture” against Palestinians.

In a report published on Friday, CAT stated that the occupying regime enforces a deliberate policy of “organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment” against Palestinian abductees, particularly since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

The committee expressed “deep concern over repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, water-boarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence” inflicted on Palestinians.

Palestinian prisoners were degraded by “being made to act like animals or being urinated on,” systematically denied medical care, and subjected to excessive restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation,” the report added.

CAT also condemned the routine application of “unlawful combatants law” to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian and international human rights groups, with 3,474 Palestinians in “administrative detention,” meaning they are imprisoned without trial for indefinite periods.

The report highlighted the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand,” noting that while Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, even younger children have been abducted.

Children designated as security prisoners face severe restrictions on family contact, may be subjected to solitary confinement, and are denied access to education, in clear violation of international law.

The committee further suggested that Israel’s policies across the Occupied Territories constitute collective torture against the Palestinian population.

“A range of policies adopted by Israel in the course of its continued unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population,” the report said.

On Thursday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian abductees in Israeli prisons, urging international action to halt these abuses.

Citing human rights data, Hamas stated that 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” the resistance movement said.

Hamas called on the international community, the UN, and human rights organizations to immediately pressure Israel to end crimes against prisoners and uphold their rights as guaranteed by all international conventions and norms.

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