Saudia touches down in Kozhikode

Jeddah-based carrier Saudia expanded its network in India with the addition of Kozhikode city, launching four weekly flights from King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh to Calicut International Airport starting 1 February, it said in a press release. This marks the national carrier’s seventh destination in the South Asian country, joining its existing service to Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kochi, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Lucknow.

Why it matters: The expansion is a defensive play to lock in market share ahead of flyadeal’s planned launch in India in 1Q 2026. By securing slots in secondary Indian cities now, Saudia is optimizing its fleet to capture point-to-point traffic in a major market — leveraging its status as the world's second most on-time airline to defend its “moat” against regional and Indian competitors.

Lenovo to make AI servers in India for export markets

Global technology major Lenovo will design and manufacture artificial-intelligence servers in India for export markets as part of its infrastructure solutions business, PTI reports, citing Lenovo VP and General Manager Scott Tease. The AI servers will be engineered at the company’s Bengaluru development lab and manufactured at its Pondicherry facility.

Why it matters? For India-MENA corridor investors, India’s emergence as an AI server export base adds another potential hardware supply node for fast-growing AI data center projects in the GCC, including large-scale capacity build-outs in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

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