an enviously guaranteed annual market in Haj and Umrah traffic, and a population size that would easily engulf the rest of the GCC several times over.
Not a fair critisism on Saudia.
It's easy enough to "excel" when your market is limited to hand picked International flights like EK, QR and EY. Different story where the bulk of your operations are domestic and Haj related. Never mind about the other "issues"