Riyadh Sets Out Fleet Plans For New Airline To Rival Emirates And Qatar

Saudi Arabia has set out its initial fleet plans for the country’s newest airline, Riyadh Air, which promise to make it the one of the largest carriers in the Middle East.

On 14 March, the Saudi authorities announced a deal between Boeing and Riyadh Air which included confirmed orders for 39 of the U.S. plane-maker’s 787-9 Dreamliner along with options for a further 33 of the aircraft. The first deliveries are expected to take place in early 2025.

It is part of the fifth largest commercial order by value in the U.S. company’s history – with the existing Saudi flag-carrier Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) announcing an order for 39 Dreamliners at the same time, with options on a further ten planes.

That takes the total potential order to 121 aircraft. However, while substantial, this is still some way behind the biggest order to date, when Dubai’s Emirates ordered 155 Dreamliners, valued at $76 billion.

International ambitions

Riyadh Air was launched just two days ago by the Saudi government’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), a favorite vehicle of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. The move had been anticipated for some months, with earlier speculation suggesting the new carrier would be called RIA.

The new airline is a central part of the prince’s ambitious plans to take on his Gulf rivals and establish an international aviation hub. The government says it wants to attract 100 million visitors to the kingdom by 2030, with a further 230 million passengers connecting through its airports to other destinations. Riyadh Air says that, seven years from now, it should be flying to 100 destinations around the world.

This model of providing intercontinental connections – and persuading a minority of passengers to leave the airport and take a holiday – has worked well for other nearby Gulf countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, which have built up sizeable aviation sectors by investing heavily in new airports and aircraft.

Aviation heavyweights

The largest airline in the region is Dubai’s Emirates which, as of March 2022, had 252 passenger aircraft in its fleet, consisting of 118 Airbus A380 planes and 134 Boeing 777 aircraft. Of the total, it owns 133 planes and leases the rest.

Qatar Airways is not far behind in terms of scale, with a fleet of 216 passenger aircraft according to its most recent annual report. That encompasses a mixture of Airbus A380, A350 and A320 planes, as well as Boeing 787 and 777 jets.

Etihad Airways – based in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi – once acted as a principal rival to Emirates and Qatar but has in recent years scaled back its ambitions. As of June last year, it was operating with a fleet of 66 passenger aircraft, including 39 Boeing 787 jets, alongside seven Boeing 777s, 15 Airbus A320s and five Airbus A350s.

The other major regional carrier is Saudia which, prior to today’s announcement with Boeing, had a fleet of 144 aircraft, including 93 Airbus and 51 Boeing jets.

All these airlines also face stiff competition for international traffic from Turkish Airlines which, at the end of 2021, had a passenger fleet of 350 planes.

Riyadh Air is being led by Tony Douglas, a former chief executive of Etihad. It is chaired by PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan.