Nasair, Saudi Arabia's national carrier, will showcase its services, fares and latest offers at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM), a major travel and tourism event, opening today (May 6) in Dubai.

ATM will run until May 9 at Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Nasair’s chief executive officer, Captain François Bouteiller, said: "This is the fifth consecutive year for Nasair to be part of this respected trade fair and we are extremely excited to reconnect with industry partners. ATM provides the ideal international aviation platform to discuss our new focus on Dubai and share our key announcements."

Nasair has shown continuous growth over the past year since it last attended ATM. Since launching in February 2007, the airline has provided competitively priced travel to more than 11 million passengers on both domestic and international routes and is currently operating 950 flights per week, he pointed out.

"Nasair has remained a pioneer in the Saudi industry with more than 88 routes now flying in and out of Saudi Arabia. Our growth over the past year reflects the increase in demand for safe and affordable travel. With our upcoming involvement at Dubai World Central, we look forward to strengthening ties with Dubai in order to provide even better services to our customers,” said Captain Bouteiller.

“As one of the leading airlines in the Middle East and North Africa, we are extremely excited to be the first airline to launch passenger services from DWC on 28 October 2013. We believe that this launch will encourage increased air traffic to the Middle East, especially to Dubai, and further afield to neighboring countries like Saudi Arabia,” he added.

According to Business Monitor International (BMI), the number of tourists heading to Saudi Arabia is expected to reach 15.8 million by 2014. In support of reaching this target, Nasair will become the first Mena airline to launch passenger operations from the new Dubai World Central (DWC), Dubai’s second airport, a statement said. – TradeArabia News Service