Saudi travel tycoon receives boost from pilgrimage travels

London

MOHAMMED Al Madani, chancellor at Saudi Arabia's ministry of foreign affairs, is a frequent flier, logging at least 10 international trips a year on diplomatic missions to London, Lisbon, Manila and elsewhere. Before packing his bags, he usually checks in with the Al Tayyar travel agency in Riyadh.

He is one of three million Saudi and non-Saudi government workers and their families who move in and out of the country every year, according to the Saudi Central Department of Statistics & Information. Publicly traded Al Tayyar Travel Group Holding Co has captured almost half of the domestic market for the VIP travellers, and is Saudi Arabia's largest air travel business.

"They're always my first choice when coming to London," Al Madani's 21-year-old son, Fahad, an information technology student at Middlesex Universit…