Saudi Arabian Airlines showcased a range of new amenities at Arabian Travel Market this year in Dubai, taking centre stage at the region’s largest travel exhibition.

The airline showcased its new products and services in its new 200 square meter, two-storey exhibition stand.

Saudia featured the First Suite, including the Chef on Board service, while entertaining guests with live demonstrations of a traditional dessert served on-board called Maasoub.

The opening day of the exhibition commenced with the royal tour, which included a stop at the Saudia stand where sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai, and his esteemed delegation, visited with the director general of Saudi Arabian Airlines, engineer Saleh bin Nasser Al-Jasser who demonstrated the airline’s latest product features and award-winning amenities.

In the presence of the media and members of the travel trade in the afternoon of day one of ATM, Nasser Al-Jasser revealed the airline’s new Holidays division called Saudia Holidays.

The new organise includes a range of package options for all types of travel: religious, cultural, business and leisure.

Through the special Holidays division, Hajj and Umrah packages are available for guests planning to visit the Two Holy Mosques in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Guests can also book through Saudia Holidays for leisure packages in destinations all across the airline’s route network.

Breaking Travel News chats with Jaan Albrecht, chief executive, Saudi Arabian Airlines, during Arabian Travel Market 2017:

Al-Jasser said of the launch: “Saudia Holidays was created for the sole purpose of the guest experience in mind.

“We would like to provide our guests with the convenience and confidence of booking an entire travel package with one service provider, directly through the airline’s sales channels.”

Jaan Albrecht, chief executive of the carrier, chats with World Travel Group president Graham Cooke

Day two of the exhibition featured special visits from prince Bader bin Abdul Mohsen and prince Sultan bin Salman, president of the Saudi Commission for Tourism & National Heritage.

On day three of the four-day event, Saudia chief executive, Jaan Albrecht, appeared on the Global Stage on a panel to discuss current developments and fleet investments at the airline.

Saudia’s participation in the exhibition provided a platform to collaborate with new travel partners and showcase new growth plans.

With further route expansion plans underway for the remainder of the year, the airline continues to add new aircraft to its fleet which will see it reach an average fleet age of 3.75 years by the end of this year.

This year the airline added two new destinations so far: Multan (Pakistan) and Portsudan (Sudan) on April 1st and April 7th.

In 2016, four new routes were introduced: Maldives, Munich, Ankara and Algiers.

The airline’s route network covers 86 destinations across four continents and through its partnership with SkyTeam, it connects its guests to the entire alliance network of 1,062 destinations in 177 countries.