Riyadh Air CEO in town for talks with Air India, IndiGo

Riyadh Air CEO Tony Douglas is in India where he will be meeting the top brass at Air India and IndiGo to explore a potential partnership as it looks to launch flight operations later this year as part of Saudi Arabia’s ambitious vision to position itself as a global hub comparable to Dubai.

“This market is really important. We are here today because [of not only] the traveling public flying out of India, but also the many people who want to connect efficiently back into India. So, this geography is super important to us,” Mr Douglas told journalists in New Delhi. In 2023, approximately 1.5 million Indian visitors travelled to Saudi Arabia, marking a 50% increase from 2022. The second biggest population in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia after the Saudis are Indian nationals.

Riyadh Air has signed cooperation agreements with airlines such as Delta Air Lines, Singapore Airlines, Turkish Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Saudia, Air China, Egyptair, and Virgin Atlantic. These partnerships will extend its network through codesharing and aligned customer experiences, particularly to regions like the U.S. and Australia, which it may not serve directly initially.

“We have got two gaps [in partnership agreements]. One is North Western Europe and the other is India,” Mr Douglas said about the talks with the two big Indian carriers which he said were in “early stages”.

The airline expects to launch flights “later this year” after it takes the delivery of two Boeing 787-9s from the aircraft manufacturer, in addition to the debut Boeing 787-9 leased from Oman Air.

The airline is engaged in discussions for an extra widebody aircraft. It is evaluating the Boeing 777-9x and Airbus A-350-1000 for its XWB aircraft option. Once finalised, it would be the airline’s third order after an order of 72 Boeing 787-9S and 60 A321s, including the A321LRs.

“So we’ll have a three type fleet only,” Mr Douglas told journalists in New Delhi ruling out an Embraer order. The airline will reveal its cabin interiors in the next two months. After the first two Boeing 787-9s join the airline, it expects to add one aircraft per month of this type.

“It is literally one a month. Some months it is two and so on and so forth,” Mr Douglas said. The A321s join the airline fleet from the second half of 2026.

Until 2030 the airline aims to connect 100 global destinations. It will begin with major capital cities in Europe, followed by secondary cities of Europe, North America, points within the GCC, and Far East. “We are completely underserved in the Far East from Riyadh at the moment,” the Riyadh Air CEO said identifying potential destinations such as Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul and Sydney.

Since its launch two years ago, the airline has received 1.5 million job applications from 146 nationalities. 52% of the candidates were women. The airline has a total 500 employees as of now, 36 of these are pilots and 36 cabin crew. Indians are the second largest in size at 16% after Saudi nationals.