Qatar Airways recently resumed flights to Saudi Arabia, with a daily service to Riyadh after more than years of blockade.

The resumption of passenger flights would mean additional capacity for cargo in the belly hold of the widebody aircraft that will service the route.

"The national carrier of the State of Qatar has touched down in Riyadh for the first time since 2017," Qatar Airways said in a statement, noting that the airline will operate a daily service to Riyadh on wide-body aircraft including the Airbus A350, Boeing 777-300 and Boeing 787-8.

The first flight between the route commenced on January 12 from Hamad International Airport to King Khalid International Airport in Doha operated by Qatar Airways’ Airbus A350-1000.  

Later this week, Qatar Airways will also resume flights to Jeddah on January 15 and to Dammam the next day, January 16. 

"The national carrier of the State of Qatar continues to rebuild its network, which currently stands at over 110 destinations with plans to increase to over 125 by the end of March 2021," Qatar said.

Qatar Airways is expected to benefit immensely from the end of the blockade with access to airspace over Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE, Bahrain, and more countries and much shorter flights on westbound trips from Qatar, among others.