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Riyadh Air delays launch after Boeing setbacks

Traveller is looking out of airport window at airplane. Silhouette of man waiting for his flight Alamy via Reuters
With production delays to Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners, Saudi Arabia's Riyadh Air will be grounded for a while longer as its launch date has been pushed back
  • Boeing Dreamliner delays
  • Deliveries later this year
  • Saudi tourism affected

Riyadh Air has been forced to push back its launch date to the third quarter of 2025 after delays to deliveries from Boeing. The new Saudi airline had been scheduled to begin flying early this year. 

It is a blow to Saudi Arabia’s tourism ambitions to attract 150 million visits a year. Riyadh Air was founded to increase the kingdom’s air traffic capacity and to upgrade the services on offer for travellers. It has yet to announce its initial routes, but consultant John Grant from Midas Aviation has suggested they could include flights to Jeddah, Dubai, Cairo, Kuwait, Istanbul, Bahrain, Milan and Nice.

Riyadh Air had been expecting a delivery of eight 787 Dreamliners, but now expects no more than four, according to reporting by Bloomberg.

“I am confident, given the latest forecast, that we’ll get deliveries this year,” said CEO Tony Douglas, adding: “Is it completely without risk? Obviously no, it’s not.”

Boeing’s production rate has declined in recent years amid strikes and increased scrutiny of its factories following two high-profile crashes of 737 Max jets in 2018 and 2019. Questions concerning the jet’s reliability were raised again last year when a door plug of an Alaska Airlines plane blew out mid-flight.

In the first three quarters of last year, Boeing delivered just 291 aircraft, 80 fewer than the previous year. Its main competitor, Airbus, delivered 497 aircraft over the same period, an increase of eight year on year.

Boeing’s stock price has not recovered since it fell dramatically during the Covid 19 pandemic. While Airbus has bounced back and reached a record high in March 2024, Boeing’s shares continue to trade at around half the amount they did at the start of 2020.