Riyadh Air, the new flag carrier of Saudi Arabia, is scheduled to launch in mid-2025, marking a significant milestone in the airline industry that might last for many years.
CEO Tony Douglas states, “We’re talking about connecting to well over 100 destinations.” Riyadh Air’s RX flight code is carried to nearly every location in the world by a fleet of contemporary single-aisle and twin-aisle jets that are strikingly purple in color.
One of Saudi Arabia’s main initiatives to open up to the West is Riyadh Air.
With 80% of the world’s population within eight hours of Riyadh, the airline will benefit from the same geographic location as its Gulf rivals Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways. The airline is being funded in part by a $50 billion war chest from the oil-rich kingdom’s Public Investment Fund.
Ahead of the inauguration of Riyadh Air’s new headquarters, which exude the aura of a cutting-edge digital tech company, Executive Traveller had an interview with Douglas.
Douglas tells Executive Traveller that it “has more in common with a Microsoft headquarters, a Google headquarters, and an Apple Cupertino type of headquarters than any conventional airline you’ve ever been around before.”
We purposely chose to do that because, according to our mission statement, we are a digitally led company that makes travel possible. We want to be quite clear that Riyadh Air is not to be mistaken for a traditional airline.
Even though Riyadh Air is not a traditional airline, it still needs to start with the fundamentals of aircraft and routes, along with the extra concern of whether or not alcohol would be supplied on those aircraft and throughout those flights.
Riyadh Air will fly where?
Douglas tells Executive Traveller that when Riyadh Air launches in the middle of 2025, it will first operate tiny out of pure need but will quickly “scale to size.”
Douglas claims that the first flights of Riyadh Air’s Boeing 787s will feature a “Mercedes Maybach” business class and a premium economy that is more akin to business than economy. Two European cities have been selected as the aircraft’ initial destinations.
“Three aircraft is the minimum number required for successful launch; we will use three.”
In order for Riyadh Air to receive its Air Operator’s Certificate, the airline will start crew-only training flights on its first 787 in September.
“After that, we get a second aircraft, but until we get the third, we obviously have a tech spare, so there’s not a whole lot we can do with it.”
In what way will the emerging network of Riyadh Air develop?
Douglas sketches out, “We’ll be flying from Riyadh to, say, ‘European capital A’ and back.”
The aircraft will then reverse course and complete a shorter leg on densely populated roads inside the area, perhaps to Jeddah. After that, it will return to Riyadh, make a U-turn, and go to “European city B,” and so forth.
Establishing the Riyadh Air System
Furthermore, Douglas projects “a drum-beat of deliveries” during the second half of 2025 and well into 2026, given that Riyadh Air has placed an order for 39 Boeing 787s with the option to purchase an additional 33.
The network expands with each new plane that lands. We’ll merely add more cities to that list each time we obtain a new plane.
As it expands into Asia, Riyadh Air plans to add two new destinations on average each month with a consistent flow of aircraft, with Singapore likely to be the first.
“After five years, you’ll see almost every major capital city in Europe, every major capital city in the Far East, the majority of major capital cities in Central Asia, obviously in our own Gulf region, the Indian subcontinent for obvious reasons as well, and the eastern seaboard of North America.”
Reaching the goal of 100+ destinations, however, will take time, and Riyadh Air will need to rely on a network of “strategic partners” in the early going.
Air China, China Eastern, Singapore Airlines, Turkish Airlines, and Douglas Tips, an unidentified “big North American” carrier, are already on that roster.
Douglas states that although Riyadh Air plans to operate to Australia and New Zealand, “in the early days we certainly won’t have the fleet and maybe not the flow connect to, let’s say, eight cities in Australia and three in New Zealand,” the airline still has these plans.
Therefore, we’re more likely to implement a “thick route” into Singapore early in our network building, providing guests with an amazing Riyadh Air experience, and with an RX codeshare ticket, the last leg (to Australia or New Zealand) on an equally amazing product and experience with Singapore Airlines.
And a fleet of single-aisle aircraft will cover the area while the 787s handle Riyadh Air’s medium- to long-range routes.
Douglas says an agreement has already been signed, but it won’t reveal if it’s with Boeing or Airbus. Airbus presently has 195 unannounced orders for the A320 and A321 series that were placed between December 2023 and April 2024.
“We’ll play that card in the coming months, and we’ve got our positions covered on narrow-body jets,” Douglas states.
Air in Riyadh will it be “dry”?
And will there be alcohol offered on those flights operated by Riyadh Air, or even in the luxurious business class lounge that the airline will soon be building at King Khalid International Airport?
Douglas answers in a confidently courteous manner.
“It’s really very simple: we’ll operate within the existing legal framework at all times.”
“As alcohol is currently illegal in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, we will comply with that legislation as it stands.” If circumstances change over time, we will modify and adapt as necessary.
At the present, the laws as they are now If circumstances change over time, these thoughtfully chosen words seem to be guarded against conjecture. The conservative kingdom’s alcohol embargo will have exceptions granted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as part of an ambitious plan to position the country as a hub for trade, banking, and tourism in the region.
The first baby steps have already been made; in February of this year, a liquor store in Riyadh opened its doors and began selling beer, wine, and spirits to foreign ambassadors who are not Muslims.
For a number of years, hotels and restaurants with a license have permitted non-Muslim guests to consume alcohol. One such Gulf state is the United Arab Emirates.
