Saudi Arabian Airlines kicked off the long-awaited bidding process for a stake of up to 49 percent of its catering division, Arab News reported.The catering division is one of Saudia’‘s five sectors that the company plans to privatize by the end of 2007 before floating a stake in its core transport business.

A senior Saudia official said that Saudia Catering is a profitable venture, which produced some 15 million meals in the first nine months of 2005 alone to cater for a large number of airlines operating to and from the Kingdom.

“The catering division has had a great impact on the local market since it purchased 80 percent of its material from the Saudi market,” added the official.Compared to the year before, Saudia’s catering division witnessed a 12 percent increase in production.

The official said the growth has been evenly recorded in all of the catering division’‘s four local units (Jeddah, Riyadh, Madinah and Dammam) and its international unit in Cairo.
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