Aviation Riyadh Air start may be further delayed By Valentina Pasquali February 21, 2025, 10:41 AM Reuters/Dilara Senkaya Riyadh Air's CEO Tony Douglas said it was 'currently engaged in an extra-wide-body campaign' In skies ‘by the end of the year’ Launch had been delayed to Q3 Moderate supply chain improvement The start of Saudi Arabia’s new government-owned airline Riyadh Air could be delayed yet again. Riyadh Air CEO Tony Douglas told a Saudi investment conference in Miami that the airline would start operations “by the end of the year”. But he was not more specific. Last month, the carrier pushed back its launch date by a few months to the third quarter after the US planemaker Boeing delayed delivering the 787-model aircraft Riyadh Air had ordered. “By the end of this year, you will see Riyadh Air in the skies,” Douglas told attendees at the Saudi-government-backed Future Investment Initiative conference on Thursday. There are “moderate” signs of improvement, Douglas said, in the aviation supply chain that has so plagued his and other airlines. High-profile incidents involving new Boeing aircraft and labour unrest have plagued the US company and its deliveries, which were one fifth down in the first three quarters of last year, at 291 planes, versus 371 in the same period in 2023. Its European rival Airbus delivered 497 airplanes in the same period. Riyadh Air’s launch delay is a blow to Vision 2030 An ambitious year ahead for Gulf aviation Riyadh Air in talks to buy 50 more widebody aircraft Riyadh Air has ordered 72 twin-aisle Boeing 787s and 60 single-aisle Airbus A321neos, according to Douglas. He said it was “currently engaged in an extra-wide body campaign,” and that there would perhaps be a future announcement, without giving details. Extra-wide-body aircraft are large commercial planes designed for long-haul flights, featuring a wider fuselage than standard wide-body aircraft. Examples include Boeing’s 747 model and Airbus’s A380. Airbus does not make A380s any more.
