British Airways is to resume flights to Riyadh and Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia, in March, after a four year gap in services.

The growing importance of Middle-Eastern investors to Western economies means the routes which British Airways abandoned in 2005, as oil prices started to climb, are now commercially viable.

Previously the routes had been dogged by security problems, with the airline having to suspend services at certain times in the years immediately after 9/11.

The airline will fly five times each week from Heathrow Terminal 5 to both Jeddah and Riyadh.

Robert Boyle, British Airways’ commercial director, said: “Resuming these flights makes commercial sense. The oil market is increasingly important globally and inward investment into Saudi Arabia has risen considerably in the last couple of years. “We can start these flights now because the aviation market between Britain and Saudi Arabia has recently been liberalised.”

British Airways suspended services to Riyadh and Jeddah in March 2005. At the time the airline blamed poor commercial performance on the route. However, the routes were more expensive to operate than they should have been because the service operated via Kuwait, where the cabin crew would stay.

According to a spokesman for BA, the Kuwait stop-over was a security feature insisted on by cabin crew unions. When flights resume in March, they will be direct from London to Jeddah and Riyadh and crew will stay in Saudi Arabia.

When BA pulled out of the routes in 2005, BMI became the only British airline to fly direct to Saudi Arabia. It began flying to Riyadh in September 2005 and Jeddah in 2006, and has since increased the frequencies with which it serves the routes.

There is increasing anecdotal evidence that professional firms including law firms and surveyors are sending more staff to the Middle East, at the current time.

One property market insider said: “The big firms want to make sure they have the right contacts when the sovereign wealth funds resume buying in the UK commercial property market. They are already looking closely at City properties but aren’t quite ready to take the plunge.”

However, problems in their home markets mean that sovereign wealth funds are retreating to their home markets. As conditions become more challenging, many are repatriating their money and Jones Lang LaSalle, the surveying firm, says value investors are starting to look at opportunities in the region.

Even the oil-rich Middle East is experiencing the impact of the global credit crunch, with many developers delaying or deferring major construction projects, according to a report.

Many of the regions biggest real estate companies are considering delays or deep cuts to future projects, because of the difficulty raising debt.

In a recent report, Jones Lang LaSalle said that Middle Eastern companies that are not backed by government entities are finding access to capital particularly difficult.

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