Al Maha Airways


Al Maha Airways was a planned subsidiary airline of Qatar Airways to serve the Saudi Arabian aviation market based initially at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, and then at Hamad International Airport in Doha. The start of operations was postponed several times following its announcement in 2014, and then cancelled entirely by February 2017 following issues obtaining its operational license. The blockade of Qatar by Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern nations, the suspension of flights to and from Qatar as well as the barring of Qatari aircraft from Saudi airspace sealed the fate of the airline.

History

Al Maha was founded as a Saudi Arabian subsidiary of Qatar Airways in 2014, but never began operations. Al Maha, which means "oryx" in Arabic, was to sport the Qatar Airways logo but would be green instead of maroon, to match Saudi Arabia's national colors. On 29 April 2015, Al Maha Airways took delivery of four Airbus A320-200 aircraft.
The airline was set to begin operations in the fourth quarter of 2014, but then the starting date was postponed to summer 2016. In February 2017, Qatar Airways announced however that the Al Maha Airways project was cancelled and the airline would not start operations, due to ongoing issues gaining its operational license.

Destinations

The initial destinations were planned to be Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam, Medina, Abha, Qassim, Doha and Dubai.

Fleet

As of November 2016 the Al Maha Airways fleet consisted of the following aircraft: