The Saudi Arabian flag carrier, Saudia, started out in 1945 a single twin-engine Douglas DC-3 Dakota gifted by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The airline now operates more than 140 aircraft, providing a means of transport to more than 34 million annual passengers to 95 destinations around the world. Other major airlines in the country include Flynas, Flyadeal and SaudiGulf Airlines, among others. In addition to these public airlines, Saudi Aramco operates its own private airline, Saudi Aramco Aviation, with a fleet of 7 aircraft and their own terminals in several cases, which they use for the transportation of employees from several far-flung locations such as Shaybah, Yanbu and Tanajib.
Flag of Saudi Arabia:
The flag of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the flag used by the government of Saudi Arabia since 15 March 1973. It is a green flag featuring in white an Arabic inscription and a sword. The inscription is the Islamic creed, or shahada: “There is no god but Allah; Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah”.
The green of the flag represents Islam and the sword stands for the strictness in applying justice.
The flag is manufactured with identical obverse and reverse sides, to ensure the shahada reads correctly, from right to left, from either side. The sword also points to the left on both sides, in the direction of the script. The flag is sinister hoisted, meaning that when viewed from the obverse (front) side, it is hoisted to the left of the flagpole.
Because the shahada is considered holy, the flag is not normally used on T-shirts or other items. Saudi Arabia protested against its inclusion on a planned football to be issued by FIFA, bearing all the flags of the participants of the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Saudi officials said that kicking the creed with the foot was completely unacceptable. Similarly, an attempt by the U.S. military to win favor with children of the Khost Province of Afghanistan by distributing footballs adorned with flags, including that of Saudi Arabia, ended in demonstrations.
The flag is never lowered to half-mast as a sign of mourning, because lowering it would be considered blasphemous. Similarly, the flags of Afghanistan, and self-declared Somaliland are also never at half-mast.
The normal flag cannot be hoisted vertically according to Saudi legislation. Special vertical flags are manufactured where both the inscription (the creed) and the emblem (the sword) are rotated, although this is rare, as most Arab countries traditionally do not hoist flags vertically.