DHL Express, the world's leading international express services provider, has launched a new daily flight connecting Bahrain Hub with Jeddah, one of its gateways in Saudi Arabia's western region.

The new route will see DHL Express fly seven times a week between Bahrain International Airport and Jeddah's King Abdulaziz International Airport, with each Boeing 757 flight carrying up to 22 tons of cargo. Doing so makes DHL the first international express provider to offer direct movement and clearance of non-document goods through its DHL Express Worldwide service between Bahrain and Jeddah, reducing transit times by anywhere from 24 to 48 hours for customers shipping to Saudi Arabia's Western Provinces.

"Bahrain forms a key node connecting Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia to other markets like China, the Kingdom's top export and import destination; and the European Union, where air freight volumes have grown by more than 50% since 2011," said Nour Suliman, CEO, DHL Express Middle East and North Africa. "This new route has allowed us to reintroduce Worldwide Parcel Express services after eight years, at a time when e-commerce and growing regional affluence are causing demand for cross-border consumer shipments to literally soar."
 
This brings the total number of flights into Saudi Arabia to up to 21 per week, with the Bahrain-Jeddah connection further enhancing the transit time at Saudi Arabia's main express gateway in Riyadh. The new connection allows DHL customers to order pickup of non-document shipments as late as 5pm for same day dispatch, with DHL handling all package movement and clearance from the point of pickup. The route also supports growing volumes of repaired and returned goods between Saudi Arabia and producers in United Arab Emirates, US and the European Union, primarily in the energy, technology, and life science sectors.

Jeddah is one of Saudi Arabia's fastest growing cities, due largely to a steady flow of investment to build its infrastructure and economy, while Bahrain's strategic location and streamlined logistics infrastructure make it a critical entry point for shipments to and between countries in the Arabian Gulf.

"Imports and exports to and from Saudi Arabia have been increasing in the past few years and show no signs of cooling off, particularly with the US and within the Middle East and North Africa region," said Bachi Spiga, head of Operations, Middle East and North Africa, DHL Express. "This new route will provide much-needed delivery capacity and agility not only to Jeddah and the Western Provinces, but also indirectly to the many other Gulf states for which Saudi Arabia acts as a trade hub.

"As intra-regional trade and demand for consumer goods continues to grow, supported by heavy regional investment in logistics-intense sectors like life sciences and technology, we intend to continue improving the speed, frequency, and quality of service of deliveries throughout the region with market-leading connections like our new Bahrain-Jeddah flight."

"This investment is timely and supports Saudi Arabia's transformational blueprint known as Vision 2030, of which one of its pillars is to transform the strategic location of the kingdom into a global hub connecting three continents, Asia, Europe and Africa; and turning the Kingdom into an epicenter of trade and logistics, and a gateway to the world," said Faysal El Hajjami, country general manager, Saudi Arabia, DHL Express. - TradeArabia News Service