Flynas

Flynas began flying in 2007 as Nas Air, making it the first budget carrier in Saudi Arabia. The rebrand to flynas came in 2013, and since then the airline has grown into one of the busiest low-cost operators based in the Gulf. It runs more than 1,500 flights a week to over 70 destinations across the Middle East, Asia, Europe and Africa, and its own booking materials say it has carried more than 80 million passengers over the years.

The airline's network has shifted noticeably toward Europe and the Levant. Summer 2026 brought new routes from Riyadh to Rome, Munich and Budapest, part of a 25-route global push, and direct service to Aleppo started on August 1, 2026. Flynas also flies to Damascus from Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam. Six hubs now feed the schedule, up from the four bases (Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Madinah) that anchored earlier growth.

Fleet plans point to long-haul ambition. In late July 2026 the airline firmed up additional Airbus A330-900 and A321neo orders, following reports that Airbus and flynas were in talks over a jet deal. The widebody A330-900s signal a move beyond the narrowbody short-haul model that built the brand. Earlier data put the fleet at 61 aircraft as of February 2025, a number that is now well out of date.

Privately held and headquartered in Riyadh, flynas is not the state flag carrier (that is Saudia). It competes directly with flyadeal, Air Arabia, Jazeera Airways and SalamAir, leaning on first-mover status in the Saudi budget market and a route map weighted toward pilgrim, expatriate and leisure traffic. Saudi Vision 2030 aviation targets give the whole sector a structural tailwind. [edit]