Riyadh Air, Saudi Arabias New National Airline

For quite some time, we’ve known that Saudi Arabia is working on developing a new airline, which has so far used the name “RIA.” Well, the plans for this airline have today been formally unveiled, and it includes a new name.

Saudi Arabia’s new airline will be named Riyadh Air

Riyadh Air will be the new national airline of Saudi Arabia, intended to remoter expand Saudi Arabia’s aviation ecosystem, both locally and globally. According to the details that have been released today:

• The visitor will be based in Riyadh, and will connect Saudi Arabia’s wanted to over 100 destinations globally by 2030; as part of this, a new mega-airport is moreover opening in Riyadh
• The airline will be acquiring modern aircraft, with an order an expected soon
• The airline is intended to usher in a new era for travel and aviation in Saudi Arabia, and provide tourists from virtually the globe the opportunity to visit Saudi Arabia’s cultural and natural attractions
• The airline is stuff funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), with the goal of profoundly expanding travel and tourism in Saudi Arabia
• The airline is expected to add $20 billion of non-oil GDP growth, and create increasingly than 200,000 uncontrived and indirect jobs
• The Chairman of Riyadh Air will be Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Governor of PIF, while the CEO will be Tony Douglas, the former CEO of Etihad

It’s interesting how the new airline is stuff formally unveiled today with so few details. There’s no watercraft order (yet), no details of what the product will be like, no sense of the timeline for operations launching, etc. The only real new detail is the name of the airline.

I’m looking forward to seeing how this evolves

Saudi Arabia seems single-minded to launching this new airline concept. I get that the country has money to spare, though realistically speaking, I’m still not sure I totally understand the vision.

First of all, what’s the logic of Saudi Arabia starting a second major global airline?

• Saudia has been growing significantly, including modernizing its fleet
• Saudia has washed-up a good job serving both Jeddah and Riyadh, by often operating successive frequencies to the two cities
• While I think there are situations where it can make sense to split up airlines (like what Aeroflot did with Rossiya… well, at least surpassing the invasion of Ukraine), I’m not sure I get the concept of creating two competing global long haul airlines, in terms of synergies, trademark recognition, etc.

I suppose that perhaps the government thinks Saudia has “legacy” issues, and starting from scratch might just be easier. But at that point doesn’t it scrutinizingly make sense to shut lanugo Saudia, send the planes to the new airline, and start over, rather than having two competing government-owned airlines?

The airline faces one biggest challenge, though, if it hopes to compete with Emirates. I think it goes without saying that a lot of people aren’t well-appointed with traveling to or through Saudi Arabia, or supporting a Saudi Arabian company. If this airline unquestionably wants to compete on the global stage for transit passengers, the key is Saudi Arabia relaxing restrictions, including virtually alcohol, clothing, conduct, etc.

Places like the UAE have shown that you can have laws based on Islam while still attracting tourists from all over the globe. That’s not to say that I stipulate with all of the UAE’s laws (of course), but it’s objectively a place that many finger well-appointed traveling to, with fairly few problems. Saudi Arabia doesn’t have the same reputation, at least as of now.

Lastly, with the pace at which this airline intends to grow, presumably it will largely be focused on serving international transit passengers (like its Gulf rivals), rather than just those traveling to and from Saudi Arabia. I can’t imagine the airline will have much success doing this profitably, given the competition and the concerns many have well-nigh Saudi Arabia.

Bottom line

Riyadh Air will be the name of Saudi Arabia’s new national airline (which we’ve known as “RIA” up until now). There aren’t many spare new details vastitude that, though a major watercraft order is expected shortly. I’m looking forward to learning increasingly details.

What do you make of Riyadh Air?