Vueling gets Arabia rights. How well will the magic carpet fly?

Vueling has provisionally been assigned two weekly frequencies to operate between Spain and Saudi Arabia by Spain's Directorate General of Civil Aviation. The rights allow it to operate from anywhere in Spain to Jeddah and/or Dhahran (via the airport of Dammam) in Saudi Arabia. Spain's bilateral with Saudi Arabia allows for seven weekly frequencies, but, to date, Vueling is the only Spanish carrier to apply for rights.

Jeddah is the number one Saudi airport and Dammam number three by seat capacity (week of 13-Jan-2013, source: OAG). Vueling has not yet made public any plans to launch routes utilising these rights, but the Saudi market has some attractive characteristics. Moreover, Saudia is currently the only scheduled operator between the two nations, operating Jeddah to Madrid.

However, routes to both Saudi cities from Vueling's Barcelona base would be significantly longer than any of its existing routes. Indeed, at more than 4,000km, they would rank among the longest narrowbody LCC flights anywhere in the world. Could Vueling's skills in evolving the LCC model extend to what would effectively be a long-haul service?