“In short, the Kingdom’s Emirates, the Kingdom’s Qatar Airways, but bigger and better,”
says Tony Douglas, CEO of Riyadh Air.
Saudi Arabia intends to become the new king of aviation in the Gulf. The country has announced its plans to launch its own airline and turn Riyadh into a global aviation hub by 2030.
Let’s dive in.
In this post:
Riyadh Air’s Grand Tour: 100 Cities and FIFA
Saudi Arabia is going all in on this. The Kingdom’s Vision 2030 intends to move the country away from its reliance on oil, and Riyadh Air is the first step into turning Riyadh into a business and tourism magnet like Dubai or Doha.
Other mega projects include hyper-futuristic cities like The Line, or Qiddiya, the entertainment city, and even the Red Sea Project on the coast.
Riyadh Air similarly has bold plans to connect 100+ cities by 2030, including “Golden Triangle” routes like Dubai-Riyadh (a 2-hour flight that Douglas calls “the aviation equivalent of printing money”).
They’re also opening routes to the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the Asia Pacific, fully intending to take advantage of their geographical position in the center of the globe.Their biggest obstactle will be that: 60% of those destinations overlap with Emirates and Qatar Airways hubs. This will make product differentiationwill be key, and im excited to see how competetive this gets.
To handle the traffic, the country is already making plans to build a giant new airport for the capital (the planned King Salman International Airport), which will eventually handle Riyadh Air’s growth and ease pressure on the existing Riyadh airport.
Jets, Jobs, and Jumping on Boeing’s Problems
Building a global airline from scratch obviously requires a lot of planes, which Riydah Air has been trying to do. The carrier placed a blockbuster order for up to 72 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners (39 firm orders, plus options to total 72) in March 2023. More recently, it also ordered 60 Airbus A321neo family jets to cover shorter routes.
They're implementing an aggressive strategy to take advantage of the equally aggressive tariffs.
I previously talked about how the brewing trade war between the U.S. and China has left dozens of brand-new Boeing jets (like 787s and 737 MAXs) in limbo.
Riyadh Air is taking advantage of this.CEO Tony Douglas has already told Boeing: ‘We’ll happily take them all.’ Opportunistic? Absolutely. But also smart, especially when you’re trying to build an airline at warp speed.
They’re also very obviously talent shopping.. Tony Douglas (ex-Etihad) and Peter Bellew (ex-Ryanair and Malaysia Airlines) have joined the payroll, bringing heavyweight Gulf experience to their ranks.
Final Thoughts
Saudi Arabia clearly has big plans for its shiny new airline. The airline is set to launch in the last quarter of 2025 and become a competitor to Qatar and Emirates by 2030.
But making plans is one thing, and carrying them out is another. Saudi Arabia faces a perception hurdle: Can Riyadh Air shake the Kingdom’s conservative image to attract LGBTQ+ travelers or solo female flyers?
I’m a huge fan of competition, and I think that is exactly what this will do. The Gulf airlines are steps ahead of other competitors, and Riyadh will definitely make sure they keep stride. But while deep pockets can buy Dreamliners, they can’t guarantee full seats. Just ask Etihad, which lost billions overestimating demand.
So far, they seem to be doing everything right, but time will tell whether they're able to maintain the standard they hope to achieve.
