Riyadh Air's long-anticipated first flight is set for October 26, when it will take to the skies bound for London Heathrow using a leased Boeing 787 aircraft – albeit with an unconventional launch strategy.
The maiden flight from the Saudi capital to Europe's busiest airport will carry paying passengers who are employees of the airline and its owner the Public Investment Fund (PIF), through a “launch membership” programme, Riyadh Air's chief executive Tony Douglas said.
The Riyadh-Heathrow route will be a daily scheduled service, which the airline is starting in time for the northern winter season.
Ticket sales to the public will not begin until the start-up airline takes delivery of its first two 787 Dreamliners from the US plane maker, “weeks after” the October 26 flight date, Mr Douglas told The National. He declined to provide specific dates.
Meanwhile, flights for the “launch members” will begin on Riyadh Air's technical spare aircraft, dubbed Jamila. Airline and PIF staff, along with their families, will be eligible to buy tickets through the loyalty programme, Sfeer, and will be surveyed for customer experience feedback.
“How do you stand up an airline from zero without testing absolutely everything?” Mr Douglas said. “We're going to survey them on all the touch points across the guest experience.”
Riyadh Air's launch strategy includes testing the passenger flights and mitigating the potential risk of jet delivery delays after general tickets have been issued.
“Until you've tested and trialled everything, if you go 'big bang' on day one and assume absolutely everything will work perfectly on the first day, the reality is it won't … so we will use that period to make sure the feedback will give us the opportunity to polish every last little detail before I actually sell a ticket to you,” Mr Douglas said.
The Saudi airline was established in March 2023 as part of plans to help turn the kingdom into an aviation and tourism hub and diversify its revenue from oil. Its launch preparations stirred interest in the market after a series of aircraft orders with Boeing and Airbus, crew uniforms unveiled during Paris Haute Couture Week and the reveal of its cabin interiors.
Delivery delays at Boeing prompted the airline to push back its launch to the fourth quarter of the year. The airline had said it was not an option to operate older or leased planes for its debut.
Boeing delivery delays
Riyadh Air's first 787-9 aircraft came out of the paint shop in Boeing's plant in Charleston, South Carolina, at the end of last month, complete with its customised seats and cabins, Mr Douglas said. The second 787 is going through the final assembly line and should be completed in a month.
“The first delivery is imminent, the second is one month behind it, so it's happening in the short term. This is really now going to pick up a lot of pace,” he added.
Once its first two aircraft are delivered, as well as starting selling tickets to the public, Riyadh Air will start services to Dubai International Airport (DXB).
“The minute the first [new] aircraft arrives, we will put [it] on to London Heathrow, and we will put Jamila on to Dubai,” Mr Douglas said. “When the second aircraft gets delivered, we will put it on to Dubai, and then Jamila will become the technical spare.”
He declined to provide a start date for the Dubai service, saying it depends on Boeing's delivery dates and other variables.
“If we had sold you a ticket for the presumption of a date to go from Riyadh to London Heathrow, I don't know absolutely the day of the Boeing delivery until the day after it's turned up,” Mr Douglas said. “And if the day before it's supposed to be delivered, Boeing rings me up and says 'Tony, bad news: We found a little technical hiccup, it's going to be three days late,' then I've now not fulfilled the obligation from the ticket I've sold you.”
The airline has placed an order for 39 Boeing 787 aircraft and options for an additional 33, taking the total to 72 Dreamliners.
Asked why Riyadh Air would not wait for the new aircraft to arrive and then serve the wider public, Mr Douglas said the airline wanted to set a high standard from the beginning through trials of the entire process from flight booking to airport lounges.
“We've got an obsessive attention to detail. We want to make sure that we've tested, refined and smoothed out everything during this process,” he said.
Many variables can affect the delivery of an aircraft, from final certification to weather disruptions.
Asked if there was enough demand for the Riyadh-London route from staff and families to launch the route, Mr Douglas said “everybody in the kingdom wants to be a launch member”.
Nevertheless, the public can enrol on the Sfeer programme from October 8, becoming eligible to be a “founding member” and enjoy its benefits, but will not yet be able to book flights.
“We will be very transparent. When we have the second new aircraft, the day after, I will be announcing when I'm going to do general public ticket sales,” he said.
Other airlines currently operating the Riyadh-London Heathrow route include British Airways, Saudia and Virgin Atlantic.
'Highly unusual' strategy
Riyadh Air's “soft launch” strategy is “highly unusual but strategically cautious”, Linus Bauer, founder and managing director of UAE-based consultancy BAA & Partners, said.
“It allows the airline to test operations, train crew and refine the customer experience without public scrutiny,” he said.
However, while this controlled roll-out minimises reputational risk, it also delays revenue and exposes the airline to intense competition when it enters the London and Dubai markets, which are served by heavyweights such as Emirates, flydubai, British Airways and Saudia, he added.
Launching these routes is a sign of “bold ambition” but “the longer the public debut is delayed, the harder it becomes to capture mindshare and loyalty from established rivals,” Mr Bauer said.
The airline is prioritising operational reliability over speed and market share, a “cautious but logical move” given the current constraints in aircraft supply, he said.
The airline plans to expand to 100 routes in the next five years as it receives more aircraft. It has 182 planes on order, including options, from Boeing and Airbus but has not yet received any deliveries.
Riyadh Air has a workforce of 600, which will grow to 15,000 employees by 2030, Osamah Alnuaiser, senior vice president of marketing, said at a press conference in the Saudi capital on Wednesday.
Riyadh lacks direct connectivity to other major global cities such as Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney and Shanghai, which is “unacceptable”, Mr Douglas said.
The airline's mission is scaling up the Saudi capital's connectivity and, with time, increasing transfer traffic through Riyadh International Airport, which currently has 90 per cent point-to-point traffic, he said.
“The primary objective is far better connectivity, but as we grow, we will become a super-connector as well,” Mr Douglas said, referring to the hub models of Gulf carriers such as Emirates and Qatar Airways that rely on flying passengers between continents.
He dismissed the idea of joining an airline alliance group but noted that Riyadh Air has signed deals with 10 airlines including Delta, China Eastern, Turkish, Egyptair, Singapore Airways and Virgin Atlantic to fly passengers onward towards other destinations.
When Riyadh Air begins to take delivery of its 60 Airbus A321 Neo on order, it will start short-haul and domestic routes, Mr Douglas said.
The airline expects to receive one new aircraft a month from Boeing over the next year, after which it will also begin taking deliveries from Airbus.
Sfeer loyalty programme
Riyadh Air's loyalty programme Sfeer means Ambassador in Arabic but also references the English word “sphere”.
Enrolment will open on October 8, and only Sfeer members will be able to purchase tickets for the initial flights, she said.
“We really built in all of the benchmarking and pain points of how do we do it differently,” Kim Hardaker, Riyadh Air's vice president of loyalty and sustainability, said.
