Saudia ‘still a flag carrier’ ahead of Riyadh Air launch

SPA

• 118 jets on order
• Saudia still based in Jeddah
• Riyadh Air will serve capital

Saudi Arabia’s flag carrier Saudia is upgrading its fleet with new Boeing and Airbus aircraft even as the government prepares to start a new airline later this year.

The 80-year-old carrier has 118 aircraft on order, most of which will replace older models in its existing fleet of 147, and are scheduled to arrive through next year.

Meanwhile, the new airline Riyadh Air will replace Saudia as the kingdom’s primary flag carrier and operate out of the capital. Saudia, by contrast, will focus its operations out of Jeddah, its historic city on the Red Sea coast and the gateway to Islam’s holiest sites in nearby Mecca and Medina.

“We’re still a flag carrier; nothing is going to change,” says Rossen Dimitrov, Saudia’s chief guest experience officer. “There’s so much new infrastructure and investment happening (that) I don’t even think two carriers will be enough for Saudi Arabia at some point.”

The world’s second-largest oil producer is investing or seeking investment of around $100 billion in its aviation infrastructure and equipment as part of efforts to more than triple passenger traffic to 330 million by 2030.

Tourism, including pilgrimages to Mecca and Medina from among the world’s 2 billion Muslims, is a part of that passenger target and an investment priority for the government.

More broadly, the government is seeking to reduce the nation’s reliance on oil and gas for its wealth and create more jobs for its 20 million Saudi citizens, almost half of whom are under the age of 30.

Much of the overall targeted increase in passenger numbers will be handled by Riyadh Air. Its fleet of more than 200 aircraft will serve more than 100 destinations. 

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The carrier will be based at Riyadh’s King Salman International, a six-runway airport under construction and due to be completed in 2030.

Riyadh Air’s primary objective will be to compete with “global” airlines, according to Turab Saleem, head of hospitality, tourism and leisure in the Middle East and North Africa at consultancy Knight Frank. 

Saudia’s Jeddah focus, meanwhile, will help the kingdom achieve its target of a 60 percent increase in pilgrim numbers to the western province from 18.5 million last year to 30 million in 2030. 

The city’s King Abdulaziz International airport is undergoing a $31 billion revamp as part of these plans.

Last year, Saudia carried 35 million passengers, a 15 percent increase over the year before.

“They’re not really going to be competing with each other,” Taimur Khan, head of Middle East and North Africa at research consultancy JLL, says of Saudia and Riyadh Air. “There are different types of visitation models within these different areas.”

As flag carriers, the two airlines enjoy preferential rights accorded by their government. But they are not the only Saudi carriers. 

The kingdom’s budget airlines such as Flynas will provide a low-cost alternative, mostly performing short-haul flights within the Gulf Arab and wider Mena region.

Nor is the kingdom’s airport investment focused solely on Riyadh and Jeddah. Red Sea International Airport, which opened in 2023 to serve beachgoers to Saudi Arabia’s northern Red Sea coast, aims to handle 1 million people in 2030. 

In December, the government also invited companies to bid to expand the international airport in the south-western city of Abha.

“Our growth is not stopping,” says Saudia’s Dimitrov. “There is enough work to sustain Saudia and Riyadh Air, but probably even more carriers.”